Full text of "The complete works of Richard Sibbes, D.D."

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Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635
The complete works of
Richard Sibbes, D.D

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NICHOL'S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES.

PUEITAN PEEIOD.

Mxt^ (general ^xdnn

BY JOHN C. MILLER, D.D.,

LINCOLN COLLEGE ; BONORARY CANON OF TTORCESTER ; RECTOR OF ST MASTIN'S, BIBMINOHAMa

THE

WORKS OF RICHARD SIBBES, D.D.

VOL. VI.

COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.

W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational
Union, Edinburgh.

JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.
THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University,
Edinburgh.

D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church,
Edinburgh.

WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church
History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.

ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby-
terian Church, Edinburgh.

6fnfral ffi&itor.
REV. THOMAS SMITH, M.A., Edinbukgh.

THE COMPLETE WORKS

RICHARD SIBBE8, D.D.,

MASTER OF CATHERINE HALL, CAMBRIDGE ; PREACHER OF GRAY's INN,

LONDON.

BY THE REV. ALEXANDER BALLOCH GROSART,

(OOa. MEMB. SOO. ANTIQ. OF SCOTLAND)

KINROSS.

VOL. VI.

CONTAINING :

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER

JOSIAH'S REFORMATION THE SPIRITUAL FAVOURITE

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER THE RETURN OF PRAISE THE SAINt's COMPORTS

THE church's COMPLAINT GOD's INQUISITION RICH POVERTY

SPIRITUAL MOURNING VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS ANGELS' ACCLAMATIONS

FRUITFUL LABOUR MATCHLESS LOVE

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE KING DAVId's EPITAPH LYDIa's CONVERSION

THE bride's LONGING.

EDINBURGH: JAMES NICHOL.

LONDON : JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN : W. ROBERTSON.

M.DCCC.LXIII.

BDINBITRGH :

PRINTED BT JOHN GREIQ iND SOU,

OLD PHTSIC GARDENS

:^THE J

CONTENTS.

Page

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTEE. .... i-25

JOSIAH'S EEFOEMATION. .... 27-90

(1.) The Tender Heart. . . . . • 27-43

Doctrines : —

[1.] God doth graciously fit prophets for persons and his

word to a people that are upright in their hearts. 80

[2.] It is a supernatural disposition of a true child of

God to have a tender and a melting heart. . 32

Wherein is discussed —

The qualities of a tender heart. ... 32

How a tender heart is wrought ! and] how preserved. 33

How God is said to harden the heart. . ■ 38

How to know that we have a sensibleness and pli-

ableness. ..... 39

How to recover ourselves from deadness of heart. 41

(2.) The Art of Self-Humbling. .... 44-58

Doctrines : —

[l.J It is a disposition not unbefitting kings to humble

themselves before God. .... 44

[2.] The actions of grace are reflected actions. • 46
Here are handled —

The kinds and degrees of humiliation. . . 46

How we may come to humble ourselves. . . 48

Motives to humiliation. .... 51

How true humiliation may be known. . . 52

(3.) The Art of Mourning. .... 59-75

Doctrines : —

[1.] The body and soul must join together in the action

of humiliation. ..... 62

I CONTENTS.

Page
[2.J When God will afflict or humble a man, it is not a

kingdom that will save him. ... 63

[3.] Tears and mourning for sins, when it comes from

inward grief, is a temper befitting any man. . 63

[4.] It concerns magistrates above all others to be affected

with the dangers and miseries of a land or nation. 64

[5. J It is the duty of every Christian to take to heart the

threatenings of God, against that place and people

where he doth live. .... 65

[6.] God takes a particular notice of the prayers we make

to him. .... . . 72

(4.) The Saint's Refreshing. .... 7G-90

Doctrines : —

[1.] God regards every good thing which his children do,

and rewards them for the same. ... 77

[2 and 3.] Death is nothing but a gathering, and pre-supposeth
that God's children are all scattered in this world
amongst wicked men. .... 78

[4.] The changes of God's children are for the better

still. ..... 78

[5.] Burial is a comely and honourable thing. . 80

[6.1 The miseries of this life may be such as that death
may be much better then life, and far rather to be
chosen. . . . . . 81

[7.] Our times are in God's hand. ... 81

[8.] It is the sight of misery which works the deepest

impression. ..... 82

[9.] Those which be dead ' in the Lord' are freed fi'om

seeing any evil or misery. ... 83

[10.] The righteous go to heaven, and cannot see or know

our wants. ..... 83

[11. J The lives of God's children do keep back evil jfrom
the place where they live, and their death is a
forerunner of judgment. ... 84

[12. J All the evils which we suffer are from the evil of

sin. ...... 86

[13. J God will give good men faithful servants. . 88

[14. J The care of a commonwealth and of a church is a

duty belonging to the king. ... 88

THE SPIRITUAL FAVOUEITE AT THE THRONE OF

GEACE. 91-108

Notes. ....... 108

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKEE. .... 109-132

I Notes. ...... 132

CONTENTS.

A RESC[JR FROM DEATH, WITH A RETUR>^ OF
PRAISE.

Notes.

•f^fed of sin

THE SATx\T'S COMFORTS.

The childran of God fiiU into extremity of misery and affliction

Six reasons of it. .

Two uses of it : first, not rashly to censure ourselves or others

secondly, against profane mockers at the dejected.
Grod upholdeth his from sinking in trouble.
Four reasons of it. .
Seven uses of it.
Affliction stirs up devotion. .
Two uses of it.

Prayers to be made only to God.
How to make our prayers fervent.
Six directions.
Sin hinders prayer.

The way to get out of misery is to get dischar
The way to take away sin, is by confession.
Sin is in the best. ....
Community of olfenders lessens not sin.
God makes his children see and feel what sin is.
Four reasons of it. .

How to be sensible of sin with seven directions.
Three uses of it. .

A soul stung with sin, should fly to the free mercy of
God only can relieve a guilty conscience
God only forgives sin.
God's mercy is free.
The best Christian needs forgiveness.
Forgiveness is general to all that cast themselves on

mercy.
God's goodness stirs up to duty.
It stirs up to faith, love, and fear.
Three uses of it.
We should wait upon God. .
Four reasons of it. .
Two uses of it.

God.

his free

THE CHURCH'S COMPLAINT AND CONFIDENCE.

Notes.

vu
Pag b

133-157
157

159-180

161
162

162

163

183

163

165

166

168

169

170

171

173

174

175

175
177
177
177
179
179
179

181-203
203

GOD'S INQUISITION.

Notes.

205-228

223

VIU

CONTENTS.

THE RICH POVEETr; OR, THE POOR MAN'S RICHES.

There is difference of people.

God will have soma in the worst times ; why.

Comfort that God will have a church when we are gone.

God's children but few. ....

God hath a special care of these few.

God's church and children afflicted in the world, and why.

Outward poverty a help to poverty of spirit.

Providence serviceable to predestination

Spiritual poverty what it is not

What it is.

Degrees of this poverty.

Before conversion.

After conversion.

Signs of spiritual poverty.

How to come to spiritual poverty

God trusted as he is known.

Evidences of trust in God. .

How to come to trust in God.

Notes.

Page

229-263

232
232
233
233

234
236
238
241
242
242
242
242
242
243
247
253
254
259
263

SPIRITUAL MOURNING. •

. 265-292

Wherein is laid open —

Who are spiritual mourners, and what it is to mourn spiritually. 267

That all godly mourning is attended with comfort. . . 271

How spiritual mourning is known and discerned from other

mournings. ...... 274

Together with the means to attain it, and the trial thereof in

sundrv instances. ..... 275

VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS.

Notes.

293-314
314

ANGELS' ACCLAMATIONS.

Angels an host ; why.

Of glorifying God. .

The greatness of the glory of redemption.

How to know whether we glorify God.

Hindrance of God's glory.

How to come to glorify God.

Whence peace comet-.

Peace wrought by Christ, why.

, 315-366

319
824
824
829
832
834
887
841

CONTENTS.

•How to know our peace with God.

How to maintain peace with God.

Motives to stir up to this peace.

God's good will the ground of all good.

yWhy God loves us in Christ.

■How to know God loves us.

Notes. ....

Page
341
344
346
348
351
352
856

THE FEUITFUL LABOUE FOR ETERNAL FOOD. 857-381

Notes. ....... 381

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING.

Wherein is shewn —

That we may be assured of God's love unto us.

Helps for weak Christians how to attain unto this love.

Helps how to know that we have it in us.

That Christ is in all believers.

How to know that Christ is in us. .

How, in a seeming absence, he is discovered to be in the soul

How to keep Christ there, and how to recover him being lost.

385-412

388
389
391
402
403
406
409

A HEAYENLY CONFERENCE.

To the Reader.
Notes.

. 413-486

416
485

KING DAYID'S EPITAPH.

Notes,

. 487-516
516

LYDLA'S CONYERSION.

Notes.

. .517-534
534

THE BRIDE'S LONGING, • • • ^53-560

To the Reader. . . . . . . . 537

The church's happiness consummate in heaven. . . 539

Of the word Amen. ..... 540

Doct. 1. The hearts of God's children are pliable to all

CONTENTS.

Reason
Reason

Page
divine truths; more to the promises; above all, to the
promises of Christ's second coming. . . 541

Reason 1. There is a suitableness between a sanctified heart

and sanctified truths. . . . . 541

Reason 2. There is a spiritual taste infused to relish those

truths. . , . . . .541

3. The Church's will is not her own, but Christ's. 541

4. There is a spiritual contract between Christ and

the soul. ..... 541

Reason 5. It is a seal of effectual calling. . . 541

What efiectual calling is. . . . 541

Use 1. If we find an unpliableness on our part, to beg the

performance of the covenant of grace. . . 541

Motives to give our Amen : —

Motive 1. God honours us in having our consent. . 542

Motive 2. We honour God in sealing to his truth. . 542

Use 2. A reproof of two sorts :

1. Those which have no 'Amen' for God. . . 542

2. Those which have a false ' Amen.' . . . 542
The desires of the Spirit, the true characters of a Christian. . 543
Desires resembled to a stream in sundry particulars.

They come from a good spring. . , . 543

They carry all before them. .... 543

They swell by opposition. .... 544

They are restless till they are emptied. . . 544

They increase in running, . . . , 544

6. They rest in their proper place. . . . 544

7. They constantly send up vapours. . . . 544
Five observations making way to the main point : —

1. There will be a second coming of Christ, more glorious

than the former. . . . . . 544

2. A Christian that hath true faith in the times to come,

will have answerable desires and prayers. . . 544

B. A gracious heart turns promises into desires and prayers. 545

4. The more assured one is of any thing, the more effectual

it makes him pray. .... 545

5. God's promises have gradual performances. . . 546
The sixth and main point —

6. It is the duty and disposition of a gracious heart to desire

the glorious coming of Christ, and all his other
comings, in way and order to this, as they make
way for his last coming. .... 546

Reason 1. The Church is in ^Yant till then. . . 547

Reason 2. Our life is hid with Christ in God. . . 547

Reason 3. Christ is, in some sort, imperfect till then. . 547

Reason 4. Where the treasure is, there will the heart be. . 547

Reason 5. The members are carried to union with the Head. 547

Reason 6. By comparing it v.ith glory here, in sundry par-
ticulars. ...... 548

Reason 7. From the state of the church at the best in this
world, in regard of troubles without and corruptions
within. ...... 549

CONTENTS. XI

Page
Trials of our desires for the second coming of Christ : —
Trial 1. By seeing what benefit we have by the first coming

of Christ. ...... 550

Trial 2. By our preparing for it. . . . . 550

Trial 3. Whether our hearts be in the kingdom of Christ

now. ...... 551

Trial 4. By our holy exercises. .... 55l

Directions enabling us to utter this desire and praj^er : —

Direct. 1. Labour to be reconciled to God. , . 552

Direct. 2. Labour to grow in the new creature. . . 552

Direct. 3. Be sure to do what you do thoroughly and quickly. 552

Direct. 4. Take all advantages to help this desire and prayer,

from crosses and Satan. .... 553

Two objections answered : —

Obj. 1. I find I am not so desirous of the coming of Christ

as I ought. ..... 554

Ohj. 2. But I desire to live still. .... 554

A pressing exhortation to long for the second coming of
Christ, and from thence also to quicken ourselves in
our Christian work. ....

A conclusion —

Upon the particular occasion. . . 556

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER.

NOTE.

' The FaithM Covenanter' forms a portion of the miscellaneoiis sermons of ' Evan-
gelical Sacrifices' (4to, 1640). Its separate title-page is given telow.* For general
title-page, see Vol. V. page 156. G.

* T H E

FAITHFUL

COVENANTER.

In two Sermons upon Gen.

17. 7.

The late Learned and Reverend Divine,

EiCH. SiBBS:

Doctor in Divinity, M'' of Katherine Hall

in Camhridge, and sometimes Preacher

to the Honourable Society of

G K A y E S-I N N E.

Nehe. 1. 5.

Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that
keepeth Covenant and mercy for them that Love him.

London,
Printed by E. Purslow, for N. Bourne, at the Roy-
all Exchange, and R. Harford at the gilt
Bible in Queenes head Alley, in Pater-
Noster-Row. 16 3 9.

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER.

/ wUl estciMlsh my covenant betireen me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in
their generations, for an everlastiny covenant, to be a God to thee, and to
thy seed after thee. — Gen. XVII. 7.

God having framed man an understanding creature, hatli made him fit to
have communion and intercourse with himself; because he can by his
understanding discern that there is a better good out of himself, in com-
munion and fellowship with which, happiness consists. Other creatures —
wanting understanding to discern a better good out of than in themselves,
their life being their good — desire only the continuance of their own being,
without society and fellowship with others. But man, having the knowledge
of God, the Creator of heaven and earth, but especially of God the
Redeemer, providing for him a second being better than his first, undev-
standeth that his best and chiefest good dependeth more in him than in
himself; and because his happiness standeth in acquaintance and fellow-
ship with this God, which is the chief good, he desireth a communion with
him, that he may partake of his good.

This communion and fellowship of man with God, was first founded on
a covenant of works made with Adam in paradise. If he did obey, and
did not eat of the forbidden fruit, he should have life both for himself and
his posterity ; the which covenant, because God would not have forgotten,
he afterward renewed in the delivery of the ten commandments, requiring
from man obedience to them in his own person, exactly, at all times, per-
petually : promising life on the obedience, and threatening death and cursing
if he continued not in everything the law required to do. But this fellow-
ship being placed in man's own freedom, and having so weak a foundation,
he lost both himself and it, so that now by the first covenant of works,
Adam and all his posterity ai'e under a curse ; for we cannot fulfil the law
that requireth personal obedience, perfect obedience, and exact obedience.
He that ' continueth not in all is cursed,' Gal. iii. 10. The law then
findeth us dead and killeth us. It findeth us dead before, and not only
leaves us dead still, but makes us more dead.

Now after this fall, man's happiness was to recover again his communion
and fellowship with God ; and therefore we must have a new covenant before
we can have life and comfort. God must enter into new conditions with
us before we can have any communion with him.

4 THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER.

God therefore, loving man, doth after the breach of the first agreement
and covenant, when Adam had lost himself by his sin, and was in a most
miserable plight as ever creature was in the world, falling from so great a
happiness into wondrous misery ; he raised him up and comforted him by
establishing a second, a new and better covenant, laying the foundation of
it in the blessed seed of the woman, Christ the Messiah, who is the ground
of this new covenant, and so of our communion and fellowship with God,
without whom there can be no intercourse between God and us in love.
And because this covenant was almost forgotten, therefore now in Abraham's
time God renewed it to Abraham in this place : * I will be thy God, and the
God of thy seed after thee,' &c.

There are four periods of time of renewing this covenant : first, from
Adam to Abraham ; and in those first times of the world, those that were
under the covenant were called the 'sons and daughters of God,' 'the chil-
dren of the promise,' and the covenant of grace was called a promise of the
blessed seed.

Secondly, From Abraham to Moses ; and then it was called a covenant,
and they the children of the covenant. ' I will estabhsh my covenant.' A
covenant is more than a promise, and a more solemn thing, because there
be ceremonies.

The third period of renewing the covenant of grace was from Moses to
Christ ; and then it was more clear, whenas to the covenant made with
Abraham, who was sealed with the sacrament of circumcision, the sacra-
ment of the paschal lamb was added, and all the sacrifices Levitical ; and
then it was called a testament. That diflereth a little from a covenant ;
for a testament is established by blood, it is established by death. So
was that ; but it was only with the blood and death of cattle sacrificed as
a type.

But now, to* Christ's time to the end of the world, the covenant of grace
is most clear of all ; and it is now usually called the New Testament, being
established by the death of Christ himself ; and it diflers from a covenant
in these respects :

First, A testament indeed is a covenant, and something more. It is a cove-
nant sealed by death. The testator must die before it can be of force. So
all the good that is conveyed to us by the testament it is by the death of
the testator, Christ. God's covenant with us now, is such a covenant as is
a testament, sealed with the death of the testator, Christ ; for ' without
blood there is no redemption,' Heb. ix. 22 ; without the death of Christ
there could be no satisfaction, and without satisfaction there could be no
peace with God.

Secondly, A testament hequeatheth good things merehj of love. It giveth
gifts freely. A covenant requireth something to be done. In a testament,
there is nothing but receiving the legacies given. In covenants, ofttinies
it is for the mutual good one of another, but a testament is merely for their
good for whom the testament is made, to whom the legacies are bequeathed;
for when they are dead, what can they receive from them ? God's cove-
nant now is such a testament, sealed with the death of Christ, made out
of love merely for our good ; for what can God receive of us ? All is
legacies from him ; and though he requireth conditions, requireth faith and
obedience, yet he himself fulfilleth what he asketh, giveth what he i-equir-
eth, giveth it as a legacy, as we shall see afterward.

Thus you see that the communion and fellowship of man with God, must
* Qu. 'from'?— Ed.

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER. 5

either be by a covenant of works or by a covenant of grace. And we must
distinguish exactly between these two covenants and the periods of them.

When the covenant of works was disannulled by our sins, because we
could not fulfil the law exactly and perpetually, God will have a new cove-
nant. If we believe in Christ, we shall have everlasting life. Now, if we
stick to the one, we must renounce the other. If it be of faith, it is not of
works ; and if it be of works, it is not of faith. This was excellently signi-
fied by Joshua and Moses. Joshua bringeth the people to Canaan, and
not Moses. Moses doth not bring any to heaven. It must be Joshua,
the type of the true Jesus, that must bring them through Jordan to
Canaan. This was typified also in the ark. There was the law, the
covenant of works in the ark, but the propitiator}^ the mercy-seat, was
above the ark, above the law, and from thence God made all his answers ;
to signify to us that we can have nothing to do with the law without the
propitiatory. Christ is the propitiatory, the mercy-seat. In Christ God
heareth us. He makes all his answers in the propitiatory, Christ. There-
fore when the question is our salvation, how we have title to heaven, not
by the merit of works, for then we reverse the covenant of grace ; but our
title is merely by God's mercy in Christ apprehended by faith. The evi-
dence indeed to prove our faith to be a true faith, is from works, but the
title we have is only by Christ, only by grace. Here we must appeal from
Sinai to Sion ; from the law to the gospel ; from Moses to Christ. We must
fly with Joab to the horns of the altar, 1 Kings ii. 28. That must be our
refuge. Fly to Christ in the covenant of grace, and we shall not be pulled
fi'om thence, as Joab was from the altar. There let us live and die.

Remember, I say, that the covenant of grace is distinct in the whole kind
from the covenant of works ; yet this, they are both in the church, and
both taught, one subordinate to the other ; as thus, the covenant of works
is taught to shew us our failing, that seeing our own disability to perform
what the law requireth, we may be forced to the new covenant of grace.
And therefore, saith Paul, * By the law I am dead to the law,' Gal. ii. 19.
It is an excellent speech, ' By the law I am dead to the law ; ' by the cove-
nant of works I am dead to the covenant of works. That is, by the law's
exacting of me exact and perpetual obedience in thought, word, and deed,
I come to see that I cannot fulfil it, and therefore am dead to the law ; that
is, I look for no salvation, for no title to heaven by that ; and therefore he
saith, ' The law was added for transgression.' Why was the law added to
the promise of salvation by Christ made here to Abraham ? Why was the
covenant of works added in the wilderness afterwards ? It was for trans-
gression, to increase the sense of transgression, that we by the law might
see what we should do, and what we have not done, and that we are by
that come under a curse, and so might fly to the promise of grace in Christ.
I have stood the longer in the clearing of this, because it is a main point.
But to come to that which I specially intend. The words, as I said before,
contain the renewing of this blessed and gracious agreement between God
and man to Abraham, the father of the faithful.

' I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after
thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be thy God, and
the God of thy seed after thee.'

The words, you see, contain a covenant; and here are all things — all
the articles and circumstances that agree to any covenant whatsoever.

Here are the parties, both that make the covenant and that are cove-
nanted with.

6 THE FAITHFUL COVENANTEE.

Here is the substance of the covenant, and the qualities of the covenant,
and the condition of the covenant.

The party making the covenant is God, 'I will be thy God.'

God is the part}- covenanting. God indeed is both the party covenanting
and the substance of the covenant : ' I will be a God to thee.' They fall
both together in one. It is a most sweet sign of God's great love, that he
will stoop so low as to make a covenant with us, to be our God ; to be him-
self all in all to us. For consider but both these parties : God and we ;
the Creator and the creature ; the immortal God and mortal man ; the
glorious God and ' dust and ashes ; ' the holy God and sinful man ; the
great King of heaven and earth, and rebels and traitors as we are. For
him to condescend so low as to make a covenant with us, to enter into
terms and articles of agreement with us, it is a wondrous sign of his gra-
cious mercy and love. What can we but hope for from so gracious a God ?
But I shall have occasion to touch that afterward.

The parties covenanted with, are Abraham and his seed — his seed by
promise.

The substance of the covenant is, ' I will be a God to thee and to thy
seed after thee.'

The qualities of the covenant are, first, it is a sure covenant : ' I will
establish my covenant.'

Secondly, It is an everlastbuj covenant : ' I will establish my covenant
for an everlasting covenant.'

Thirdly, It is a peculiar covenant : ' I will establish my covenant between
me and thee and thy seed; that is, only between me and thee, and thy seed;
not with the refuse of the world, but only with thy seed by promise ; only
believers, whether Jews or Gentiles.

Fourthl}^, It is a m.O'&i free covenant. It was made to Abraham, whom
God called out of Ur of the Chaldees, out of an idolatrous nation, out of
an idolatrous family ; even as it was at the first most freely made to Adam
in paradise, when he was in a most desperate estate. When he was as low
as hell in a manner, ready to sink into despair, then the ' seed of the
woman' was promised. So here it was freely made to good Abraham:
First, the love of God was free to him when he called him, being an idola-
ter ; and then it was freely renewed afterward, when he was good, as we
shall see anon.

And lastly, It is a covenant consisting most of spiritual things. It is a
spiritual covenant. I mean especially, promising spiritual favours, although
the other things, as appendices of the main, are likewise meant. For after
that the covenant was made to Abraham and his posterity, they endured
many afllictions. After the promise was renewed to Jacob, we know he
fled from his brother Esau, to whom the covenant of grace was not made,
and yet of Esau presently came duke such a one, and duke such a one.
Gen. xxxvi. 15, seq. ; and poor Jacob was fain to fly for his life in regard
of the promise. So that I say it must be specially of spiritual blessings.

These are the qualities of the covenant. It is a sure, an everlasting, a
peculiar, and a most free covenant, aiming specially at spiritual things.

And then, lastly, you have the condition of the covenant ; and that,
though it is not expressed, yet it is implied. * I will be thy God, and the
God of thy seed.' Therefore thou shalt take me for thy God, carry thy-
self to me as to thy God, &c. It is usual in other places of Scripture, where
mention is made of this covenant, to imply the condition required on our
parts. Sometimes both the covenant and condition are mentioned together.

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTEE.

as in Zee.. .U, 9. ■ nviU say, -it^ «i; I'^Sfot:: 'yit:V^l

peculiar ones. , ,. , , ^ >

' I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed. ,

Though these words, ' I will he a God to thee, and to thy seed oe ine

or anything else.

tL: is the'l^nti in the Messiah ; but first, what is it to be a God ?
ihis IS t^^^°^^^^^' Jf , ^^^ it i^ the general, is to give hemg to the
I answer To be ^ ^fnituelf and to protect and preserve the creature
creature hat had no ^^^^'Ojff^^^^ is the perpetuity

^a Its hemg : in a word, to be ^ "^^^^^ \^^^ The office of God, as

andcontmuanceofcreation. Thisistobea^o^^^ matter, but to

God, is a most glorious function, io be a Kin„ ^^.f'^^^^ -. i,„th a beincr,
be a God to give being to the creature, to support it v^hen Yffi.f, ^^hn
to do dl thatlod shoSld do, this is a most glono- work Bu th s is bu

creation. This is not intended -l---lly ^.^^' [^J^^X Go^^^ of aU l^e men
his works. Thus by creation and preservation he is tlie uoa ox

in the world out of the church. ,

What is then to be thy God ? ' I will be tby God
I answer. To be a God in a ^^ P^^^^^ ^^^Ic n^^^^^^^^
covenant ; that is, not only to be a God to P^^^^,^.'^^, ^"^''Ition to us ; to be
of ours in a civil life, but it is to be a God in a hi^er ela^^^^ ^°.^^ ' ^^ ^

a God in a reference to an eternal, .«^^Pf -^^t^^'^^ f ^^^^^^^Ja's ^ M in a
God here in g-f, and hei.after m ^^^^^^^^^^

gracious covenant, only by Jesus <^^^f ^' f^Vnrl in Christ ' to give thee a
?I will be thy God ;' that is, < I will be '"^^ ^^;^\:^J^2 ^ ^^^
better being than this world can afiord to ^^f e tiiee norn ternally ;

thou art in by nature; to deliver thee from all 11, ^^^^^J^^^^^^^^^ especiali;
especially to bestow on thee all good, BP-itually and eternally epecia^y
as we have it in the words of the covenant, _ Gen ^^^ 1' ^^^^^ ^^^ I
shield and thy exceeding gi.^t reW , a ^^-\^ ^o ^keep^^^^^

rr^stt^teetrm^:t|rgo^^

'r'^' ' ' Thists t: bfi Go" ^a perii^r rnnrrgrall things

Ss-for^^rrriif:t^^^^^^^

things requisite to brmg us to ^eaven and ^^W^ ^^0 ; to%e all in all ;

whom all the promises are yea and amen, Z Coi. i. ^u ,

to direct the protections and provisions of his life, of our ^^ta l^^ere to^

supernatural happiness hereafter, to a state beyond ^^^^^f ' . J^^^^^^^f^e

the favours of this life, so that he takes them away or ^ g-^^^^^tGod a

seeth them advantageous, or hindrances to a better e ta^^ bo

God to those that are in covenant with him To do aU t^^^'^^^ .^

this in opposition of all enemies whatsoever ; to do a ^^/^^y/^^^^^^^

the impotency of the creature ; to do all this when all ^^«^f /^^^^^ our

trary, as it were, to bring a man to heaven in ^^l^^^'^^ ^^^^^^^^^

own corruptions, or all 0Pl--^--;t1hv^^;j'. Why doth he not say,
But why doth he say only, ' I will be thy Orod . vv uy uu

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER.

I will give thee grace and protection, I will give thee heaven and life ever-
lasting ?

Because all is one, for all things in the world are in this one promise,
' I will be thy God.' See the wisdom of heaven, how much he speaks in
how little. There cannot be more spoken than thus, ' I will be thy God.'
For in saying, ' I will be thy God,' he implies that whatsoever he is, or
hath, or can do, shall be thine too. ' I will be thy God ; ' that is, my
wisdom shall be thine, to watch over thee, to find out ways to do thee good ;
my power shall be thine, to keep thee from danger, to defend and rescue
thee from all enemies, and to subdue them by degrees unto thee ; my pro-
vidence shall be thine, to turn all things to thy good ; my mercy shall be thine,
to forgive thy sins ; my love shall be thine, to bestow on thee all necessary
comforts. There is no phrase in the Scripture that hath so much in so
little as this here, ' I will be thy God,' if we could unfold and lay open this
excellent promise. All other particular promises in the covenant of grace
are members of this. What is the reason, as Saint Paul saith, ' all things
are yours?' 'Because you are Christ's, and Christ is God's,' 1 Cor. iii. 23.
God is the God of Christ, and our God. We are in covenant with the God
of Christ. Christ ;is the heir of all, and we are members of Christ. God
who is the God of all things is ours. It is a wondrous comprehensive promise.

* I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed.'

The substance of the covenant then is, that God will be a God to us. The
point to be observed is this, that God gmcioudij in the blessed seed, the Messiah,
Christ Jesm, he takes iipon him to he a God to all those that are in covenant
with him; that is, to be all-sufficient, to bring us to happiness — all-sufficient
in this world and in the world to come, to be our portion, to be all in all.

This is the first and fundamental promise of all other. Indeed, it is the life
and soul of all the promises, and it is the life and soul of all comfort what-
soever. For all other relations spoken of God tend to this, that he is ' our
God.' This is before to be a Father, before to be anything. God first is
a God, and then a Father, and then all in all to us. As he is first the
God of Christ, and then the Father of Christ ; as you have it usually in
the beginnings of the epistles, ' God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ;'
first the God, and then the Father. To be a God, then, is the fundamental
and principal favour. From thence cometh our election ; his choosing of
us to eternal salvation before all time ; his protection and preservation of
us in time unto heaven.

I shall not need to speak more of this, having unfolded it before.

But you will say, How shall we know that this covenant belongeth to us ?
that we are such as we may say, God is our God ?

I answer, first — to lay this for a ground — ^j^ou must know that to be a
God is a relation. Whosoever God is a God to, he persuadeth them by
his Spirit that he is a God to. The same Spirit that persuadeth them
that there is a God, that Spirit telleth them that God is their God, and
works a qualification and disposition in them, as that they may know that
they are in covenant with such a gracious God. The Spirit as it revealeth
to them the love of God, and that he is theirs, so the Spirit enableth them
to claim him for their God, to give up themselves to him as to their God.

And the Spirit doth this, because friends cannot be in covenant and con-
federate without there be a likeness or an agreement. There must be more
words then, on* to a covenant. Though God's grace do all, yet we must
give our consent ; and therefore the covenant is expressed under the title
* Qu. ' than one ' ?— Ed.

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER.

of marriage. In marriage there must be a consent of both parties. In
reconciliation between a king and subjects, that are fallen out, when they
are rebels, there must be an accepting of the pardon, and a promise of new
subjection. So then if God be our God, there will be grace given to take
him for our God ; to give him homage as a king ; to give him our consent
as to our spouse. ' Thou shalt be my God, and I will cleave to thee, as
to my lord and husband.' ' Can two walk together,' saith the prophet,
' and not be friends T Amos iii. 3. There can be no friendship with God,
except there be somewhat wrought in us by his Spirit, to make us fit for
friendship, that we may look on him as an object of love and delight. If
we look on him as an object of hatred, what terms of friendship can there
be ? Now, that we may look on him as an object of love, fit for converse
with him, he must make us such by consent and yielding to him, by framing
the inward man to his Hkeness, that so there may a peace be mamtamed
with him. You see the ground of it, of necessity it must be so.

Well, to come to the trials. But let me first add this to the former :
wJwmsoever God is a God to, it is Inwivn speciaUy by spiritual and etenial
favours. A man cannot know certainly that God is his God by outward and
common things that castaways may have ; for a castaway may have Ish-
mael's blessing and Esau's portion, blessings of the left hand, common
graces. To know undoubtedly, therefore, that God is our God, must be
by peculiar matters ; for those whose God God is are a pecuUar people, _a
holy nation, severed from others. First of all, then, know what the Spirit
of God saith to thy soul ; for they that are God's have his Spirit, to reveal
to their spirits the secret and hidden love of God. But if the voice of the
Spirit be silent in regard of testimony, go to the work of the Spirit; but
go to the peculiar work of the Spirit. For though the Spirit may be silent
in regard of his testimony, yet there are some works or other of the Spirit
in a man, whereby he may know that God is his God ; as the Spirit of
God works in some sort a proportion in him unto God, and none can know
better what God is to him than by searching of his own heart, what hp is
back again to God ; for as God saith to him by his Spirit, Thou art mine,
BO they say to God, Thou art mine. Let us then come to the trial by our
carrying ourselves to God. Can we say with David, 'Whom have ^I m
heaven but thee ?' or ' What is there in earth in comparison of thee ?' Ps.
Ixxiii. 25. When the conscience can tell us that we make God our trea-
sure and our portion above all earthly things, then we make him our God.
A Christian single th out God above all things in the world for his happi-
ness. Lord, thou art mine ! Whatsoever wealth is mine, or riches mine,
or friends mine— I stand not upon that, but thou art mine. A rich man
runneth to his wealth, and makes flesh his arm. He runneth to friends,
to bear him out in ill causes ; but a true Christian that hath God for his
God, he may know it by this, he singleth out God for his portion, runs to
him in all extremities. Lord, thou art mine. This is a sign that God
hath said to his soul first, ' I am thy salvation,' Ps. xxxv. 3. How can
the soul appropriate God to himself? How can he say, as Thomas
did, ' My Lord and my God,' John xx. 28, except the Lord have spoken
peace to the soul before, and have said, ' I am thy salvation ' ? It
is a sign we have made God our God, when we prize him and value
him above all the world ; and when, with St Paul, Phil. iii. 8, we count
all things ' dung and dross, in comparison of Jesus Christ our Lord.
What we will do most for, that is our god. If we will do most for God,
he is our God. If we do most for pleasures, they are our god. If we do

10 THE FAITHFUL COVENANTEK.

most for riches, break our rests and crack our consciences for them, that
is our god. In a word, whatsoever we value highest, that is our god.

Examine lokat affections ice have to God : for it is affection that makes a
Christian. Single out some few that we are most offending in. As, first,
for/6'a;-, it may shame us all. Indeed, a Christian upon his best resolution
is better. But the ordinary carriage of men is, they fear men more than
God ; they fear everything more than him that they should fear above all.
For instance, is the retired carriage of men to God such as their carriage
is to the eye of the world ? Will not they do that in secret ofttimes that
they will not do openly ? In secret they will commit this or that sin, and
think, Who seeth ? There are secret abominations in the closet of their
hearts. They will not fear to do that in the eye of God, that they fear to
do in the eye of a child of sis years old, that is of any discretion. Is this
to make God our God, when we fear the eye of a silly mortal creature more
than the eye of God, that is ten thousand times brighter than the sun, that
is our judge ? Is God our God the whiles ? Undoubtedly, when God is
made our God, there is an awe of the eye of heaven upon a man in all
places. Therefore this is the condition of the covenant, ' Walk before me,'
or ' Walk as in my sight,' 1 Sam. ii. 30. How do we walk before God as
in his sight, when there is such a great deal of difference in our carriage
secretly, and before the eyes of men ? when we labour more to approve
our carriage to men, than we make conscience of our spirits to God ? This
may shame us. Even the best of us who are in covenant with God, and
have made God our God, we have cause to be abased for this : and surely
one of the best ways to make God's children abased and humbled, is to
compare the different proportion of their carriage ; how they carry them-
selves to men whom they respect, and to outward things in the world, and
how they carry themselves to God. If God be our God, there will be an
universal fear and care to please God in all times and in all places, because
he is everywhere ; darkness and light are all one to him.

Try yourselves therefore by this affection. If ive make God our God, ive
will fear him above all ; for there being such a distance between God and us —
he the mighty God, and we creatures whose breath is in our nostrils — there
can no other way be a covenant of peace betwixt us, but with much reve-
rence. Therefore all Christians are reverent creatures ; they do all in
fear ; they pass ' the whole time of the conversation here in fear,' 1 Peter
iii. 2 ; they ' make an end of their salvation with fear and trembling,' Philip,
ii. 12 ; they enjoy their liberties in fear. St Jude makes mention of a
number of wretched people in his time, that ate without fear, ver. 12. You
may know a man that hath not this grace of God in his heart, by his un-
reverent carriage. He never thinks of the presence and all-seeing eye of
God. A Christian that hath God to his God, knows that wheresoever he
is, he is in the eye of heaven. Therefore he is jealous, even of his own
most secret corruptions. He knows that they are lawless of themselves ;
and therefore he always sets himself in the presence of God. He is full of
reverence, full of fear, even in the enjoying of his Christian liberties.

So likewise for the affection of love. If God be thy God, thou hast grace
given thee to love him above all things. With whom God is graciously
reconciled, he giveth them his Spirit to be reconciled back again to him.
He loveth us, and we love him again ; for we are by nature enemies to
God, as he is to us. There is no wicked man in the world can love God ;
indeed, as God is a God that promiseth salvation, he loveth him — he
would fain have that, and therefore would fain be in his favour — but he

t THE FAITHFUL COVENA:nTEE. l^

cannot love God as he is in all respects ; but lie hateth bim, and be bateth
bis cbildren. He trifletb witb bis name by oaths and blasphemy, and the
like. He scorneth God. He wisbeth that there were no God. Can this
man say that God is his God, when be doth not carry himself back again
to bim in bis affection as his God ? No such matter. He is God's enemy,
and God is his enemv. So if God be our God, if he have set his love upon
us, we cannot but love bim again. If he be reconciled to us, we are recon-
ciled to bim. This is a sure sign that God is our God, if we love bim

above all. -77

Now, that may be known ij xve he zealous when God is dishonoured any
u-aij ; for whatsoever we make our god, we will not endure to have touched.
If a man make bis lust his god, if that be touched, be is all m achate.
When that which a man loveth is touched, experience shews it, be is pre-
sently all on a fire. And here the best Christians have cause to be_ abased.
Hath God their love, when they can hear bim disgraced, and bis name
abused, without being greatly moved, and yet notwithstanding, in the mean
time, will not endure their own credit to be touched, but they are, as i
said, all on a fire ? Where there is no zeal, there is no love. Certainly
when we can bear God's children misused, and religion endangered, and pro-
fession scofled at, &c., and yet not be affected, nor cannot take God's cause
to heart, this is great fault in our love.

And so for joy and delight : we make God our God when we joy in
him above all things in the world; when we make him our boast all
the day long, as it is Ps. xliv. 8 ; when we make him our glory, as he
is called our glory in Jer. ii. 11, ' They changed their glory.' God is
our glory if he be our God. We count it our chiefest glory that we are
his, and that he is durs. Whatsoever our estates be, we glory m God,
and not in ourselves. A Christian when be would joy and gloiy, he
goeth out of himself to God, be is his joy. But do not men joy m the
creature, and delight in it ofttimes more than in God ? It is a great shame
for us, and that for which even the best of us all may be abased, to con-
sider what a deal of delight and comfort we take in the creature more than
in God. We see Jonah, a good man, when bis gourd was taken from bim,
that God raised up to be a shelter for him— a poor simple defence it was ;
and yet we see bow pettish the good man was. All the comfort be had
could not keep bim from anger and fretting when the gourd was gone ; and
yet God was his God. So many men, whereas they should joy m God
above all things, yet if God take outward comforts from them, they are as
if there were no God in heaven, no comfort there ; as if there were no pro-
vidence to rule the world ; as if they had no Father in covenant with them.
I say this is a great shame for us.

Again, If God be our God, we will trust in him, rely and depend upon
him above all things ; for whatsoever our trust is most in, that is our god.
Now if our conscience tell us that we trust most in God, more than in
wealth or friends, and will not, to displease God, please any man, it is a
sign that we have made God our God, because we trust in bim. _ And
surely, if we would examine ourselves, the best of us all, it would bring us
on our knees, and make our faces be confounded, to consider what a deal
of atheism there is in our heart (though we are not altogether atheists, yet
what a deal there is), that must be mortified and subdued. For if an honest
man, and that we know is faithful, should say to us, I will be yours ; I
will take upon me to provide for you, to defend you, to protect you, to
stand by you against all adversaries ; we believe and hope that he will do

12 THE 'faithful COVENANTER.

it. But do we so to God ? Hath he our trust and affiance ? Alas, no !
so far forth, I mean, as we are not subdued to God. A Christian, indeed,
in some measure is enabled to make God his trust and confidence, but there
remains abundance of atheism even in the best of us. If God be our God,
why do we not trust in him, depend upon him for all things ; depend upon
him for protection and deliverance from all ill, spiritual ill specially, from
sin, Satan, hell, and wrath ; depend upon him for all good, the good of
grace specially, for the change of our nature and the forgiveness of our
sins, for spiritual privileges, adoption and sonship, for the inheritance
of heaven, &c. It is a sign, I say, that God is our God when we trust in
him above all the world, and trust other things only from him and for him.
I will trust man, but man may deceive me. I will not trust him therefore
with an absolute confidence. No. That were to make a god of him.
What is the reason that God confoundeth proud men at last ? David
shews the reason. ' This man he took not the Lord for his God.' When
men will, in contempt of religion, set up themselves and somewhat else to
rely on, besides God, God at the last brings it to pass, that the world shall
note them out. This man trusted in his greatness ; he trusted in his policy,
in his wit, in his friends ; this man took not the Lord for his God.

Again, If we make God our God, we may know it by our obedience, espe-
cially by the obedience of the inward man. When the inward man is vowed
to God, when a man yieldeth inward obedience to God, it is a sign that God
is his God. When a man can arraign his thoughts and desires before God,
and when lusts rise in his heart contrary to the Spirit, he checks them pre-
sently. This becometh not those that are God's ; it beseemeth not those
that walk after God, that have God's Spirit for their leader. Therefore he
is ashamed presently of base tentations.* A Christian can perform the
first and last commandments, which are the most spiritual commandments.
He can make God his God in his affections. His affections are placed upon
him alone, as I have shewed before. He can yield up all his inward
affections of fear and love and joy, and such like, unto God, which is the
sum of the first commandment ; and he can be content not to have his lusts
rage and range, sujDpresses his very thoughts and desires, will not suffer
anything to rise in his heart unchecked and uncontrolled, which is the sum
of the tenth commandment. I mean, he can do it in some measure. And
there is a inward passive obedience too. It is God, as David and other
saints said. ' It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good in his
own eyes,' Ps. cxix. 68. I am God's, and he shall dispose of me. The
soul that knoweth God to be his God hath an inward obedience of conten-
tation with his estate. God is my portion, and it is large enough. The
earth is his, and the fulness thereof, Ps. xxiv. 1. Therefore I will be con-
tent to be at his disposing, whether it be more or less ; and if any murmuring
arise in his heart, against God in respect of his estate or otherwise, he
presently suppresseth it, as being contrary to the blessed government that
a Christian is under, that should resign his whole soul unto God.

Thus by our affections, by the trial of them, we may know whether God
be our God, if we give him the affections of the heart, which religion most
stands in ; when we make the whole inward man stoop, and bow, and bend
unto him ; when we make him our king, and give him the supremacy ;
when we set the crown upon his head ; when he hath our fear, our joy and
delight, our love, our trust ; I mean, when he hath the supreme of all, for
we may love man, as God derivethf good to us by him, and so for the rest.
* That is, ' temptations.' — G. % That is, ' communicateth.' — G.

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER. 13

But God must be supreme. Others must be loved and feared, &c., in him
and for him, but he chiefly, when we depend upon him for all deliverance
out of ill and for all good, and shew our dependence on him by our subjec-
tion to him in all his ways, by our yielding to him obedience answerable to
all this ; and especially when we shall shew it by performing inward worship
to him, when we walk before him perfectly and sincerely, as it is in the
beginning of this chapter, ' I am God all- sufficient': walk before me and be
perfect.' By this we may know that God is our God. I need not enlarge
it. The practice of the first commandment will teach us what is our God.
Whatsoever we give the supremacy of the inward man to, whatsoever we
love most, whatsoever we trust most, whatsoever we fear most, whatsoever
we joy and delight most, whatsoever we obey most — that is our god. ' I
am the Lord thy God,' in the first commandment. There is the ground.
What follows ? ' Thou shalt have no other gods but me ;' that is, thou
shalt love nothing in the world, nor fear nothing, nor trust in nothing, nor
joy in nothing more than me, no, nor with me ; but all things else thou
shalt trust them and fear them, &c., in me and for me. Otherwise what is
our love is our god, what is our trust is our god, what is our greatest fear
is our god. If we fear man, fear him to do ill, man is our god ; if we love
the creature, or sin, that is our god; if we crack our consciences for wealth,
the covetous man's wealth is his god ; if we crack our consciences for
pleasures, or for our bellies, our pleasures and our bellies and our lusts are
our god. We make not God our God except we give him the supremacy
of the inward man.

But to proceed, and to come to some few familiar signs more that will
try us, though these may try us, in the intercourse that is between God
and us.

Whosoever hath God for their God, they have the S])irU of supplication
and prayer, to cry unto God, to run unto him, especially in extremity. All
God's children have the Spirit of adoption to cry, ' Abba, Father !' They
have the Spirit to give them boldness to God, when otherwise their nature,
and likewise trouble joining with nature and tentations, would make them
run from God ; yet the Spirit of God in them makes them bold to go to
God in Jesus Christ. God's children, that are in covenant with him, can
at all times pray to God. If they cannot pray, they can ' chatter ' and
sigh to God. There is somewhat they can do. There is a Spirit in them
that groaneth and sigheth, as Rom. viii. 26, and God heareth the voice of
his own Spirit. They are cries in his ears. ' My groans and sighs are
not hid from thee,' saith the Psalmist, Ps. xxxviii. 9. The Spirit of sup-
plication will shew God to be our God, because if he were not ours, we
could not be bold to go to him, in the time of extremity especially. This
sign you have in Zech. xiii. ver. 9, ' They shall call upon my name,
and I will hear them ; they shall be my people, and I will be their God.'
Invocation and prayer is a sign that God is our God, when we go to God
presently in all our wants and necessities by prayer. Pharaoh and repro-
bate spirits say to Moses, ' Pray you for me,' Numb. xxi. 7 ; but as for a spirit
of supplication in themselves, they have not. They may speak of prayer,
but they cannot pray. Whosoever is God's, he can cry to God. A child,
we know the first voice is uttered as soon as it is born, it cries ; so God's
new-born children they can cry unto God. Paul in Acts ix. ver. 11,
you shall find him praying as soon as ever he was converted ; and certainly
those that use not to pray morning and evening, and upon all occasions, that
acq^uaiat not themselves with God, God is not their God. If he were their

14 THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER.

God, tlaey would seek to him, and be acquainted with him. The Spirit
will teach them to go unto God as to a Father.

Again, We may know that God is our God by this, hy our separatinf) from
all others, in ourselves and out of ourselves. There is a separation in our-
selves, for there is the first separation. God, whose God he is, he giveth
them his Spirit, and that like fire severeth the dross, and gathereth the fold
together. And as heat in the body, that severeth good nourishment and
separateth that which doth not nourish the body, so where the Spirit of God
is, he works a separation between the flesh and the spirit. The Spirit will
know what is spiritual, and will discern what is in us that is fleshly, and will
join to spiritual things, and the Spirit will be one as it were. There will be
a sweet agreement in the word, in the sacraments, in good company, in
holy meditation and the like, and a separation from the flesh. A Christian
knows that he is redeemed from himself, as far as he is naught.* We are
redeemed from ourselves and our own base nature, as well as from hell and
damnation. Therefore there is first a separation in ourselves from our-
selves. It begins there. We have nothing to do with our corruptions.
We will not own them.

And where this sweet covenant is, that God is our God, as there is a
separation from ourselves and our corruptions, so there is a separation
from all that joineth with our corruption ; a separation in affection from
delighting in all that is not God, from all such occasions and company as
streugtheneth our corruption. A Christian knows what he hath of God's
in him, and what he hath of Satan, and that he must weaken. Therefore
he severeth himself from that which streugtheneth the one and weakeneth
the other. This trial is expressed in 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18, ' Come out from
amongst them, separate yourselves, and I will be your God, and you shall
be my people.' He speaks for direction, especially in our society and
acquaintance, for that is the thing he aimeth at. How shall we know that
God will be our God ? We must separate ourselves, and touch no unclean
thing, nothing that will help rebellion. Therefore those that have an indif-
ferent disposition to all companies, and can solace themselves in any society,
though never so corrupt, that bear themselves plausible to all, and would
be thought well of all, and so will venture upon all occasions, it is an ill
sign that they are carnal people. When in the nearest league in friendship
or amity, or in intimate familiarity, they will join with any, — all are alike, —
it is a sign they have not God for their God. For then they would have
common enemies and common friends with God ; common enemies with
God. AVhom God hated they would hate. As God in covenant blesseth
them that bless us, and curseth them that curse us, so they that are in
covenant and friendship with God will hate with a perfect hatred whatsoever
it is that hateth God ; they will have nothing to do in intimate famiharity
further than their callings press upon them ; they will give them their due
in humanity and courtesy, but no more. Their love and delight will be in
God and those that are his, that represent him, that have his Spirit and
image. How oft is this * I am the Lord your God ' repeated by Moses as
a ground of separation from idolatry ? It is expressed almost everywhere ;
and indeed, if the Lord be our God, there is ground enough of separation
from all that is not God. It cannot be otherwise.

Another sign and evidence that God is our God is victory over our base
corruptions in some measure. This you have in Rev. xxi. 7 : * He that
overcometh shall inherit all things ; I will be his God, and he shall be my
* That is, ' nauglity ' = wicked. — G.

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER. 15

son.' How shall I know that God is my God, and that I am his son ? If
by the power of his Spirit I am able to overcome and conquer in some com-
fortable measure base tentations and my base corruptions and lusts ; when
I lie not as a beast or as a carnal man under sin, but God hath given me
in some measure spiritual strength over sin.

Undoubtedly these and such like works of the Spirit, together with the
testimony of the Spirit, will be wheresoever God is our God.

In a word, to name no more trials but this, whosoever God is a God to,
iliere ivill be a transfoiining tmto God, a transforminrj unto Christ, in whom
God is our God. For we must know that we are renewed according to the
image of the ' second Adam.' Our comfort is by God revealed in Christ.
If God be our God in Christ, we will be like to God ; and that will be
known that we are like to God, if we be like to God in the flesh, God
incarnate. For we are predestinated to be like God incarnate. God, first
he is Christ's God before he is ours ; and as Christ carried himself to God,
so if we be God's, we must carry ourselves like Christ, be transformed
unto him. How did Christ carry himself to God ? God was his God.
* My God, my God,' saith Christ upon the cross. Now the gospel sheweth
that he obeyed his Father in all things, in doing and suffering : * Not my
will, but thy will be done,' Luke xxii. 42. You know how full of mercy
and compassion he was ; how he prayed all night sometimes. Though he
knew God would bestow things on him without prayer, yet he would pray
in order to God's appointment. You know how full of goodness he was,
going about continually doing good. Acts x. 38 ; and that in obedience and
conscience to God's command. In a word, look how Christ made God his
God, and carried himself to God. So must we ; for we are predestinated
to be transformed to the image of the ' second Adam,' Christ. Especially
observe one thing — I touched it before — whom we run to and trust to in
extremity, is our god. Christ in extremity, when he felt the anger and
endured the wrath of God, being a surety for our sins, yet ' My God,
my God ' still. So if we make God our God, chiefly in the greatest
extremity, in the time of desertion, as Christ did, it is a good sign. I do
but touch these things. The point, you see, is large. I only give you
matter of meditation. You may enlarge them yourselves in your own
thoughts. These I think sufficient trials, whereby you may know whether
God be your God.

Having now thus unfolded these terms, let us see what we may draw
from thence for our use and comfort.

1. First, then, if by these trials we find that God be not, or have not been,
our God, alas ! let us never rest till ive make it good that God is our God.
For what if we have all things, if we have not God with all things ? All
other things are but streams ; God is the fountain. If we have not the
spring, what will become of us at last ? Ahithophel had much wit and
policy, but he had not God for his God. Ahab had power and strength,
but he had not God for his God. Saul had a kingdom, but he had not
God for his God. Herod had eloquence, but he had not God for his God.
Judas was an apostle, a great professor, but he had not God for his God.
"What became of all these ? Wit* they had, strength they had, honour
they had, friends they had, but they had not God ; and therefore a miser-
able end they made. What miserable creatures are all such, when they
shall say. Friends have forsaken me, wealth hath forsaken me, and health
hath forsaken me ; terrors lay hold upon me, the wrath of God hath over-
* That is, ' wisdom.' — G.

16 THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER.

taken me. But they cannot say, God is my God. Oh, such are in a
miserable case, in a fearful estate indeed. Nay, suppose they have all
these, suppose they could say they have a world of riches, they have inheri-
tances, they have friends, &c., jei if they cannot say, God is my God, all
is vanity. The whole man is this, to have God to "be our God. This is
the whole man, to fear God and keep his commandment, Eccles. xii. 13.
If a man have all the world, and have not God for his God, all is but
vanity and vexation of spirit. Never rest therefore till we can prove our-
selves to be in the covenant of grace, till we can say, God is my God.

But, secondly, when we have found God to be our God, then make this
me of it, a use of resolution. Is God my God ? then I will resolve to
please him, though all creatures be against me. This was their resolution
in Micah iv. 5, 'Every nation walketh in the name of his god, but
we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.' Resolve
with Joshua and others to please God, whosoever saith the contrary ; to
walk after the commandments of God, whatsoever others do or say. In
all discouragements from men or devils, let us set this as a buckler, God
is my God. Arm ourselves with resolution against all fears and threaten-
ings of men, of men of terror, against the arm of flesh. They say they
will do this aud this ; ay, but God is my God. All that they do they
must do in his strength. Arm ourselves with this against the power and
gates of hell. Fear not the devil. If we fear man or devil more than
God, fear them so as to do anything to displease God, we make them god.
If our conscience rightly tells us that what is to be done by us is the will
and command of God, and that herein I serve God, we need not fear any
opposer; but oppose this as an armour of proof against all creatures,
against all discouragements whatsoever. And certainly experience telleth
us, and approveth it to be true, that nothing can dismay a man that doth
things in conscience to God, and knows God will bear him out in it,
though not from danger in this world ; and yet for the most part he doth
that too. Those that are the stoutest men for God are oftentimes most
safe, always freed from inward dejection. Yet God disposeth of it so as
that he that keeps a good conscience shall always be a king, and rule over
the world ; and therein he performs his promise. Whatever discourage-
ments he endureth outwardly, yet no discouragement can cast down that
soul that looks to God. In his conscience he knows that he takes God to
be his, that he serveth him, and that it shall go well with him at last, that
God will be all-sufficient to him ; and this raiseth him above all, makes
him rule and reign over his enemies, and be a terror to those that do him
hurt.

3. Again, If God be our God, then let this stop all base and covetous
desires after earthhj things. If God be our portion, why should we grapple
too much after the world then ? What need we crack our consciences and
break our peace for the muck of the world ? Is not God our portion ?
Is he not rich enough ? Is not he Lord of heaven and earth ? Hath not
he promised that he will not fail us nor forsake us ? ' I am thy exceeding
great reward,' saith God to Abraham. Is not this enough ? What doth
Satan for us when he getteth us to crack our consciences by gripleness*
after earthly things ? He promiseth, thou shalt have this and that, but I
will take God from thee, as he did Adam in paradise. Thou shall have
an apple, but thou shalt lose thy God. All his solicitations to base and
earthly courses tend to nothing else but to take God from us. Now, when
* That is, 'gripingness,' = greed, rapacity.— G.

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER. 17

God is our God, and he hath promised to be our portion, let it be sufficient
for us ; let us not, for the displeasing of him, take any condition from Satan
or the world upon any terms.

4. Again, If so be we know this for a truth, that God is our God, then
let it be a use of exhortation to stir us up to keep, and maintain, and cherish
acquaintance and faviiliarity with him; as it is in Job xxii. 21, 'Acquaint
thyself with God.' If we be acquainted with him now, he will be ac-
quainted with us in time of sorrow, in the hour of death ; therefore
cherish acquaintance with him. Wheresoever we may meet with God, be
there much ; be much in hearing, in receiving the sacrament, in praying
to him and making our suits known to him in all our necessities ; be much
in the society of saints, God hath promised to be there. Therefore cherish
the society of all that are good. What a friendly course doth God take
with us ! He seeks for our acquaintance, and therefore giveth us his
ordinances, the word and sacraments ; sendeth his messengers, the good
motions of his Spirit, to our hearts, to leave the world and vanities of it;
to make us out of love with bad courses, and join with him in friendship
and familiarity. Oh let us make use of these blessed means, check not
these good motions, but yield unto them and obey them, grieve them not !
The Spirit is sent to make God and us friends, who were enemies. Grieve
not the Spirit, entertain his motions, that we may be acquainted with God.
But do we do so ? Truly no. Indeed, if God will be our God to save
us, and let us hve in our swearing and lying and deceiving, and in other
base courses, we would be content with him upon these terms ; but to be
our God, so that we must serve him, and love him, and fear him, and joy in
him above all, and have nothing in the world without his favom-, then let
him take his favour to himself, we will have none of it. Though men
speak it not with their mouths to the world, yet the inward speech of their
hearts is to this purpose. If we must be the people of God upon these
terms, to renounce our pleasures and profits, let him be a God to whom
he will for us ! If he will save us, then welcome his favour, we will be
glad of his acquaintance ; otherwise we will have none of it. What is the
speech of the world but this ? These men, when they shall at the day of
judgment claim acquaintance with God, and say, ' Lord, Lord, open to
us,' ' we have known thee in the streets,' &c., what will God say '?
' Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I know you not,' Mat. xxv. 41.
You were acquainted with me indeed outwardly in the ministry of mj
word, but you kept not an inward and spiritual familiarity with me in my
ordinances ; you used not the society of the saints, you entertained not the
motions of my Spirit, which I sent to you, to leave your ill courses ; I know
you not. This shall be the answer to such wretched persons.

5. Lastly, If by these comfortable signs we find God to be our God, then
here is a spring of comfort opened to a Christian. If God be mine, then all
that he hath is mine ; he is my Father ; he is my husband ; he is my
rock ; his goodness, his wisdom, his providence, his mercy, whatsoever he
hath is mine. If we had any man in the world that had all wisdom in him,
and all the strength of the world, and all goodness, and all love in him,
and all this for us, what an excellent creature were this ! God hath all
this, and a Christian that hath God for his God hath all this and much
more ; for whatsoever is in the Creator* is much more in him. Hereupon
cometh all those styles and sweet names that God hath taken upon him in
the Scripture, because he would have us to know, that all comforts are

* Qu. ' creature ' ? — Ed.

VOL. VL B

18 THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER.

together in him. The names of all the creatures that are comfortable, God
hath been pleased to take upon him, to shew us what a God he is. He is
water to refresh us, a sun to comfort us, a shield to keep evil from us, a
rock to support us, chambers to cover us in the time of danger, and such
like ; and in every creature God hath left footsteps and beams of himself,
that man, being an understanding creature, might find out God in them.
In water there is a beam of his refreshing power ; in the sun, a beam of
his cherishing power, and the like ; and when we receive comfort from the
creature, which hath but a drop, a beam of his goodness, we should consider
how good God himself is. If this be so comfortable, what is God that is
my God ! Here we use the creatures to refresh us, and God deriveth his
goodness usually to us by them. What will he be to us in heaven, when
he will be all in all ; and whatsoever comfort God hath, Christ hath ; be-
cause God and Christ join together for our good. For God is in Christ
* reconciling the world to himself,' 2 Cor. v. 19; and if God be ours, Christ
is ours ; and if God and Christ be ours, all things are ours, because all
things are God's. Angels are ours, cherubins are ours, because God is
ours. It is a point of wondrous comfort. A poor Christian, when he hath
nothing to trust to, he may perhaps say sometime, that he hath no friend in
the world, and he hath many enemies. Ay, but he hath a God to go to.
If he have not the beam, yet he hath the sun ; if he have not the stream,
yet he hath the fountain ; if he have not particular benefits that others
have, yet he hath better. Whatsoever portion he have in the world, he
hath a rich portion, for God is his portion. 'God is my portion,' saith the
church in the 3d of Lamentations, ver. 21, 'therefore will I hope in him.'
The poor church had nothing else in the world to comfort it, for it was in
captivity, in the midst of enemies, had no wealth, nor friends, nor any-
thing ; yea, but God is my portion, saith my soul, and therefore God being
mine, in him I have friends, and wealth, and pleasure, and all whatsoever;
and so hath every Christian soul, and never more than when the creature
and the comfort of it is taken away. He never finds God more his God
than when he is deprived of those means that usually derive comfort to
him, for then God immediately cometh to the soul and comforteth it ; and
the disposition of a true Christian is, at those times, to take advantage by
grace to get nearer to God, to cling faster to him, to solace himself more
in him as his portion. What a spring of comfort is here arising to a Chris-
tian in all estates ! If God be his God, then he may claim him upon all
occasions and at all times, as the saints in the Scripture have done.
David, Jehosaphat, and all the saints, what do they allege in their prayers
to God ? ' Thou art our God,' ' we are thy people,' ' the sheep of thy
pasture,' ' the vine that thy right hand hath planted,' ' the Lord is my
shepherd,' &c. What made the disciples, when they were ready to be
drowned, to cry out, ' Master, save us,' but because they knew that they
were servants in covenant, that he was their Master. We should use this
as a plea to God in all the calamities of the church. We are thine, thou
art ours ! Doubtless thou art our God, saith the church, though Abraham
have forgotten, and Israel be ignorant of us, Isa. Ixiii. 16. It is a point
of spiritual wisdom, when we know we are in covenant with God, to im
prove it as an argument to persuade God to help us in any strait. ' I
am thine : Lord, save me,' saith David, Ps. csix. 94. Thou art my
God ; Lord, look to me, protect me, direct me, ease me, receive my
soul. This is a plea that obtaineth anything of God in all extremities
whatsoever.

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER.

' I will establish my covenant between me and tbee, and thy seed after
tbee,' &c.

I come now to the qualities of tbis co\'enant; and before I speak in par-
ticular of tbem, I beseecb you observe one thing (which I will but touch,
to make an entrance to that which follows), from the manner of setting
down the covenant; it is not here set down as it is in other places of Scrip-
ture : ' I will be thy God, and thou shalt be my people ; ' but here is only
the first part, the main of the covenant of grace recited, 'I will be thy God.'
Why doth he not say, too, Thou shalt take me for thy God? Because where
the first is, he ever works the second ; our part depends upon his. All our
grace that we have to answer the covenant, is by reflection from God. He
chooseth us, and then we choose him. He knoweth us, and therefore we
come to know him. He loveth us first, and then we love him. He singleth
us out to be a peculiar people, and we single out him above all things to
be our portion. ' "Whom have I in heaven but thee ? ' Ps. Ixiii. 25.

It is therefore — to come to the first quality — called a free covenant. ^ It
cometh from God merely of grace. It is of grace that he would enter into
any terms of agreement with us. It is of grace that he would send Christ
to die to be the foundation of the covenant. It is of grace that he giveth
us hearts to take him for our God, to depend upon him, to love him, to
serve him, &c. All is of grace, and all cometh from him.

So you see that it is a free covenant. That is the first quality.
Again, secondly, it is a sure, a certain covenant. I will establish my
covenant. But in whom is it established ? how cometh it to be sure ?
It is established in Christ, the mediator of the covenant, in the Messiah ;
for ' in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,' Gen. xii. 3.
That is the fundamental promise. All other promises, the promise of the
land of Canaan, the promise of the multiplying his seed as the stars of
heaven, they were all but accessary. This is the grand promise :. in thy
seed, in Christ, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. So it is a
sure covenant, because it is established in the Messiah, Christ, God-man.
And Christ being God and man, is fit to be the foundation of the covenant
between God and man, for he is a friend to both parties. As man he will
do aU that is helpful for man ; and as God, he wiU do nothing that may
derogate from God ; and so being God, and being God and man, he brings
God and man together comfortably and sweetly, and keepeth them together
in a sure and firm agreement. For first of all, he takes away the cause of
division that was between God and us, because by his sacrifice and obedi-
ence he did satisfy God's wrath ; and that being satisfied, God and us are
at peace and friendship; for God till then, though he be a fountain of
goodness, yet he was a fountain sealed. The fountain was stopped by sin;
but when there is a satisfaction made by Christ, and we beheving on him,
the satisfaction of Christ is made ours. It is a sure covenant, because it
is established in Christ the blessed seed.

And as it is a sure covenant, so, thirdly, it is an everlasting covenant.
' I will make an everlasting covenant with thee.' So it is set down here.

Everlasting in these respects. For when we are in Christ, and made
one with him by faith, he having satisfied God's wrath for us, and made
him peaceable, then God is become our father, and he is an everlasting
father. His love to us in Christ is like himself, immutable. For even as
Christ, when he took upon him our nature, he made an everlasting covenant
with our nature, married our nature to himself for ever, and never layeth
aside his human nature, so he will never lay aside his mystical body, hia

20 THE FAITHFUL COVENANTEE.

church. As Christ is God-man for ever, so mystical Christ, the church,
is his body for ever. As Christ will not lose his natural, so he will not lose
his mystical body. * I will marry thee to myself for ever,' saith God in
the prophet. So then it is everlasting in respect of God, he being immu-
table. ' I am God,' saith he, ' and I change not,' Mai. iii. 6 ; and Christ,
the foundation of the covenant, is everlasting.

And then again it is everlasting in regard of us ; because if we be not
wanting to ourselves, we shall be for evermore, in grace here and in glory
for ever. The fruits of grace in us — that is, the work of the Spirit — it is
everlasting ; for howsoever the graces we have be but the first-fruits of the
Spirit, yet our inward man grows more and more, till grace end in glory,
till the first-fruits end in a harvest, till the foundation be accomplished
in the building ; God never takes away his hand from his own work.

Everlasting also in regard of the body of Christians. God makes a
covenant with one, and when they are gone, with others. Always God
will have some in covenant with him. He will have some, to be a God to,
when we are gone, so long as the world continueth.

So that we see it is in every respect an everlasting covenant, God is
everlasting, Christ is everlasting, the graces of the Spirit are everlasting.
When we are dead, he will be a God unto us, as it is said, ' I am the God
of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,' their God when they were dead. He
is the God of our dust, of our dead bodies. He will raise them up, for
they are bodies in covenant with him. I am the God of whole Abraham,
and not of a piece ; therefore his body shall rise again. It is an everlast-
ing covenant. That is the third quality.

Lastly, It is a peculiar covenant. ' I will be tJuj God, and the God of
thy seed. All are not the children of Abraham, but they that are of the
faith of Abraham. God is in covenant only with those that answer him,
that take him for their God, that are a peculiar people. It is not glorying
in tbe flesh ; but there must be somewhat wrought that is peculiar before
we can be assured we are of Abraham's seed, and in covenant with God.

And we may know that we are God's peculiar by some peculiar thing
that we can do. What peculiar thing canst thou do ? To speak a little of
that by the way. Thou lovest and art kind ; but, saith Christ, what
pecuHar thing canst thou do ? A heathen man may be kind and loving,
but canst thou overcome revenge ? Canst thou spare and do good to thine
enemies ? Canst thou trust in God when all means fail ? What is the
power of the Spirit in thee ? Doth it triumph in thee over thy natural
con-uption ? Canst thou do as Abraham did ? He left all at God's com-
mand ; canst thou do that if need should be ? Canst thou leave children,
and wife, and life, and all at God's command ? Canst thou sacrifice Isaac
as he did ? Canst thou more trust in the promise of God than in the
dearest thing in the world, yea, than in thy own feeling of grace ? What-
soever is not God, canst thou be content to be without '? Canst thou rely
upon God when he appeared* to be an angry God ? Abraham knew that
there was more comfort in the promise than in Isaac. If thou have com-
fort in the promise more than in anything else, then thou art one of
Abraham's seed, thou hast sacrificed thy Isaac. Never talk of Abraham
else ; never think that thy portion is great in God, be what thou wilt by
profession, if there be no particular thing in thee which is not in a natural
man. If thou art covetous, as gripplef for the world, as very a drudge in
thy calling, as licentious in thy course as carnal men are, thou art none of
* Qu. ' appearetli ' ? — Ed. f That is, ' greedy, rapacious.' — G.

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER. 21

God's peculiar ones, thou art none of Abraham's seed. God's people have
somewhat peculiar that the world hath not. It is a peculiar covenant.

Thus you see the quahties of this covenant. It is a free covenant ; a sure
covenant, established in the blessed seed, the Messiah ; it is an everlasting
covenant ; and it is a peculiar covenant.

To make some use of this, in a word.

Hei'e, then, you see is another spring of blessed comfort opened to a Christian.
If he findeth God, though his assurance be little, to be his God in regard of
peculiar favours, let him remember it is an everlasting favour. His love is
everlasting. The foundation is everlasting ; the graces of the Spirit are an
everlasting spring, always issuing from Christ our head. Grace is never
drawn dry in him. God is our God to death, in death, and for ever. All
things in the world will fail us : friends will fail us ; all comforts will fail
us ; hfe will fail us ere long ; but this is an everlasting covenant, which will
not fail.

It is a point of comfort in the loss of friends, in the loss of estate in
this world. If I lose friends, yet I cannot lose God ; if he be mine, he is
mine for ever ; a friend now, and a friend ever ; my portion now, and my
portion for ever. Whatsoever God takes away, he never takes away him-
self ; and in him I have all that is taken away. All the comfort that he
doth still derive* to me by friends, he resumeth to himself. It is not
perished with the party.f He can immediately, by himself, convey what-
soever comfort was derived to me by others. He is God all-sufficient ; that
is, put the case all the world were taken away ; not only friends, but the
sun, the light, the earth, food and raiment, all, as it shall be at the day of
judgment ; if all be taken away, yet I have him ; yet I have him that made
all, that supporteth all. Cannot he do all in a more excellent manner ?
Is not he all-sufficient, though I lose all things else ? It is a point of
wondrous comfort. God knew it Avell enough. Therefore he laboureth to
estabhsh the heart of the father of the faithful, good Abraham, here, with
this instead of all, ' I am God all-sufficient, and I will be thy God.'

Again, If this be so, that God will be a God to us for ever, let us comfort
ourselves hence in all the unfaithful dealings of men. They are friends
to-day and enemies to-moi'row ; but God is my God ; and whom he loveth
he loveth to the end, John xiii. 1. An ingenuous spirit certainly esteemeth
it the greatest cross in the world ; and if anything will whet a man to
heaven, this is one, that those whom he trusteth will prove false, and at
length deceive him. Man is but man ; in the balance he is lighter than
vanity ; but he that is in covenant with God, his promise, and love, and
faithfulness never faileth. A Christian in all the breaches of this world
hath this comfort, that he hath a sure God to trust to. He that hath not
God to trust to, and is unfaithfully dealt withal in the world, what a
wretched man is he ! This was David's comfort. When he was beset
with calamities and miseries, all took from him, and the people were ready
to stone him, he trusted in the Lord his God. I come to the extent of it.

* To thee and to thy seed after thee.'

Why doth he make the covenant with his seed as well as with himself?

I answer. We apprehend favours and curses more in our seed ofttimes than
in ourselves ; and it will humble a man to see calamities on his posterity,
more than on himself ; and a man more rejoiceth to see the flourishing of
his seed than of himself. It is said that Josiah did die in peace, though
he died a bloody death, because he saw not the ruin of his house and
* That is, ' communicate.'— G. t Cf. Vol. III. page 9.— G.

THE FAITHFUL COVENAKTER.

family, whicli was worse than death. God saw how Abraham apprehended
and valued seed, when he said, ' What wilt thou give me, since I am child-
less ? ' Gen. XV. 2. Therefore God, intending a comfortable enlargement
of the covenant of grace to Abraham, extends it to his seed : ' I will be the
God of thy seed.' It is a great blessing for God to be the God of our
seed. It is alluded to by St Peter in the New Testament, * The promise is
made to you and to your children,' Acts ii. 39.

But what if they have not baptism, the seal of the covenant ?
» That doth not prejudice their salvation. God hath appointed the sacra-
ments to be seals for us, not for himself. He himself keepeth his covenant,
whether we have the seal or no, so long as we neglect it not. Therefore
we must not think if a child die before the sacrament of baptism, that God
will not keep his covenant. They have the sanctity, the holiness of the
covenant. You know what David said of his child, ' I shall go to it, but
it shall not return to me ;' and yet it died before it was circumcised. You
know they were forty years in the wilderness, and were not circumcised.
Therefore the sacrament is not of absolute necessity to salvation. So he
is the God of our children from the conception and birth.

But how can God be the God of our children, when they are born in
corruption, children of wrath ? Can they be the children of wrath and the
children of God both at one time ?

I answer. Yes ; both at one time. For even as in civil matters, in our
city here, a man may be a freeman of the city, and yet be born lame or
leprous, or with some contagious disease — this hindereth not his freedom —
so the children of a believing father and mother may be freemen of the city
of God, and in the covenant of grace, and yet be tainted with original sin,
that overspreadeth the powers of the soul notwithstanding.

Whence we see a ground of baptizing infants, because they are in the
covenant. To whom the covenant belongs, the seal of it belongs ; but to
infants the covenant belongs ; therefore the seal of it, baptism, belongeth
to them. If circumcision belonged to them, then baptism doth ; but cir-
cumcision belonged to them, for the eighth day they were circumcised ;
therefore baptism belongeth to them.

Anabaptistical spirits would not have children baptized if they beheve
not. Why then were the children of the Jews circumcised ? They were
circumcised because they were in covenant ; and is not the covenant of
grace enlarged ? Wherein doth the new covenant differ from the old, but,
among many other things, in the enlargement of it ? There is now a new
people, the Gentiles, in covenant, that were not before, new priests, new
sacrifices, new sacraments. All is new in the covenant of grace. If all be
enlarged in the covenant, why should we deny the seal of the covenant to
them in ^ the new that had it in the old, even children ? It is senseless.
The Scripture, to meet with such, applieth baptism to them and circum-
cision to us, to shew that in the covenant of grace they are all one in effect :
1 Cor. X. 2, ' All they were baptized under the cloud ;' and St Paul saith,
Col. ii. 11, ' We are circumcised with circumcision without hands.' We
are circumcised, and they were baptized ; to shew, I say, that all are one
in Christ. Christ is all one, ' yesterday, to-day, and the same for ever,'
Heb. xiii. 8 : ' yesterday,' to them that were under the law ; ' and to-day,'
to us under the gospel; and 'for ever 'to posterity. And therefore, if
children had interest in Christ then, so they have now. This is clear and
undeniable : God is the God of our children.

This should be an encouragement to parents to be good, if not for love

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER. 23

of themselves and their own souls, yet for their children and posterity's sake,
that God may do good to their children for them. They cannot deserve
worse of their children than to be naught* themselves.

How many examples are there in Scripture that God plagued and
punished the childi-en for the fathers' sins ! Though in the main matter
he will not do it sometimes, because he is gracious and good ; he will be
good to the children, though their parents be naught,* as Joshua and Caleb
came into Canaan, though their parents were rebels, and died in the wilder-
ness. Yet it is a discomfortable thing. When parents are naught,* they
may look that God should punish their sin in their children.

There is a great deal of care taken by carnal parents here in the city
(and everywhere too, but in the city especially) by covetousness, a reign-
ing sin; they will not make God their God, but the wedge of gold
to be their god. They labour to make their children great. If they
can leave them rich men, great men in a parish, to bear office, to come to
honour, that is their main endeavour ; for this they drudge, and neglect
heaven and happiness. But, alas ! what is this ? Thou mayest leave
them much goods, and the vengeance of God with them ; thou mayest
leave them much wealth, and it may be a snare to them. It were better
thou hadst left them nothing.

Look into the state of the city. Those that are best able in the city,
do they not rise of nothing ? And they that have been the greatest
labourers for these outward things, that they may call their lands after
their own names, Ps. xlix 11, God hath blown upon them, and all hath
come to nought in a short time, because they have not made God their
portion. Of all things, parents should labour to leave them God for their
God, to leave them in covenant with him ; lay up prayers in heaven for
them, lay the foundation there ; sow prayers there, that they may be
effectual for them when you are gone.

And this^likewise should be a comfort to poor Christians, that have not
much to leave their children. I can leave my child nothing, but I shall
leave him in covenant with God ; for God is my God, and always hath
been, and ever will be ; he will be the God of my seed. I shall leave him
God's blessing ; and a little well gotten goods that the righteous hath is
better than a great deal ill gotten. God addeth no sorrow with that.
There is no ' fearful expectation ' another day, as there is of that which is
ill gotten ; when the father and child shall meet in hell, and curse one
another ; when the son shall say to the father, You ensnared yourself to
make me happy, and that turned to my ruin. This shall make wicked
wretches curse one another one day. A poor Christian that cannot say he
hath riches to leave his children, yet he can say, God is my God, and I
am sure he will be their God ; though I have but little to leave them else,
I shall leave them God's blessing. Good parents may hope for a blessing
upon their children, because God is their God, and the God of their seed.

For the sacrament, a word.

The sacrament is a seal of this covenant, that God is our God in Christ,
and we are his people. God to his word addeth seals, to help our faith.
What a good God is this ! how willing is he to have us believe him ! One
would think that a word from him, a promise, were enough ; but to
his promise he addeth a covenant. One would think a covenant were
enough, but to that he addeth seals, and to them an oath too : 'I have
Bworn to David my servant,' Ps. Ixxxix. 3. Thus he stoops to all condi-
* That is, ' naughty,' = wicked. — G.

THE FAITHFUL COVENANTER.

tions of men ; he condescendeth so far to use all these means that he may
secure us. You know that a promise secures us, if it be from one that is
an honest man. We say that we are sure to have it because of his pro-
mise ; but when we have his covenant, then we are assured more, because
there is somewhat drawn. Now, we have God's covenant and his seal,
the sacrament ; and then his oath. If we will take him for our God, and
renounce our wicked courses, we shall lose nothing by it ; we shall part
with nothing for God but we shall have it supplied in him. If we lose
honour, wealth, or pleasure, we shall have it abundantly in him.

What do we hear in the sacrament ? Do we come only to receive his
love to us ? No ; we make a covenant with God in the sacrament that he
shall be our God, and we promise by his grace to lead new lives henceforth.
We have made a covenant with God at first in baptism, now we renew it
in taking the sacrament ; and it is fit, for if he renew his covenant oft to
us in love to be ours, we should renew ours oft with him, to take him to
be our God. Seven times in Genesis he renewed his covenant to Abra-
ham, because he would have him trust what he said.* Then we should
seven times, that is, oft, come to the sacrament, and renew our covenant
with him, to take him for our God ; and remember what it is to sin after
the receiving the sacrament. Sins against conscience break off a covenant
renewed. Sin hath an aggravation now. You that mean to receive, if
you sin willingly after, it were better you had not received. What makes
adultery worse than fornication ? Saith Malachi, ' It was the wife of thy
covenant,' ii. 14. Adultery breaks the covenant of marriage. It is worse
than fornication, where there is not a covenant. So you have made a
covenant with God in your baptism, and now you come to renew it. If
you sin now, it is an aggravation of the sin. It is adultery, it is disloyalty
against God.

Eemember, therefore, that we do not only take here God's kindness
sealed in the sacrament, but we re-promise back again to lead new lives.
All must resolve by his grace to obey him henceforward, and to take him for
our God. The way, therefore, will be to put this into the condition of your
promise now, and prayer after. Lord, I have promised this ; but thou
knowest I cannot perform the promise I have made, and the condition thou
requirest, of myself. But in the covenant of grace, thou hast said that
thou wilt make good the condition. Thou hast promised to give the ' Spirit
to them that ask him,' Luke xi. 13; thou hast promised to 'circumcise my
heart,' Col. ii. 11 ; thou hast promised to 'teach me,' Ps. xxxii. 8; thou
hast promised to delight over me for good ; thou hast promised to ' wash
me with clean water,' Ezek. xxxvi. 25 ; thou hast promised to put thy fear
in my heart,' Jer. xxxii. 40 ; thou hast promised ' to write thy law in the
afi'ections,' Jer. xxxi. 33. I would fear thee, and love thee, and trust in
thee, and delight in thee; thou knowest I cannot fulfil the conditions.
Thou art able and wiUing ; thou art as able to make me do these things as
to command me to do them.

Thus we should desire God to give the grace that he requires in the use
of the means ; for that must not be neglected. We must attend upon the
ordinances ; use the parts that are given us ; and in that, ' to him that hath
shall be given,' Mat. xiii. 12. Thou shalt not need any necessary good to
bring thee to heaven, if thou wilt claim the promise of the covenant in the
use of means. We shall want degrees perhaps ; but in the covenant of
grace, it is not degrees that brings us to heaven, but truth.
* Cf. Vol. V. p. 63.-G.

' THE FAITHFUL COVENANTEE. ^^

Now, in our renewing the covenant with God, let ns not despair of his
performance ; let not that hinder us from coming to the sacrament, but
come cheerfully, and know that he that hath made the covenant with thee
to be thy God, and to give thee all particular grace, in the use of all good
means, will perform it. He will perform it if we come m sincerity of
heart. If we come to 'daub'-.= with God, and after to follow our sintul
courses, this is to mock God. This made David take it to heart so much,
that ' his familiar friend, that ate at his table, lift up his heel against me,
Ps. xli. 9. May not God complain of us, that we come to the com-
munion, to his table, with false, Judas hearts, and afterwards betray him ?
He may say. My famihar friends they came and ate with me, yet they have
lift up the heel against me ; they are rebellious ; they will leave no sm that
before they were enthralled to. So, instead of a blessing, we bring a curse
upon us, a just reward of our disloyalty. Oh remember that it is a great
aggravation of sin after the sacrament.

I speak not this to discourage any, but to encourage us rather, it we
come with sincere hearts, and with resolution to please God, we may look
for all the promises from God. All that he hath promised he is ready to
perform, if we in faith can allege the promise, ' Lord, remember thy pro-
mise, wherein thou hast caused thy servant to put his trust !' Ps. cxis. 4y.

* Cf. Ezek, xiii. 10-14, and xxii. 28.— G.

JOSIAH'S REFORMATION.

JOSIAH'S REFORIklATION.

NOTE.

' Josiah's Eeformation' forms Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11 of the first edition of ' The Saint's
Cordials'— 1629 ; and in the second and third— 1637 and 1658— Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Cf. Notes, Vol, IV. page 60, and Vol. V. page 176. For account of a manuscript
eopy of these delightful sermons, in my possession, see Bibliographical List of
Editions in Volume VII. The title-page of ' Josiah's Eeformation,' in the edition
of 1637, which is our test, is given below.* G.

* JOSIAHS
EEFORMATION.
Laid open in foure Sermons.
f 1. The Tender Heart.
) 2. The Art of Selfe-Humbling.

VIZ. {

) 3. The Art op Mourning

( 4. The Saints Refreshing.

WHEREIN IS SHEWED THE

TVRNINGS AND WINDINGS OF THE

Soule in this great worke of Reformation : and how the

stout heart may so be brought low, as to be made humble,

melting, and compassionately mournfull : even to

the comfort of a sweet Assurance.

[Wood-cut here, as described. Vol. IV. p. 60. See also Memoir, p. cxxiv.]

By R. SiBBS D. D. Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge,
and preacher of Grayes Inn London.

The second Edition.

EsAY 57. 15.

For thus saith the high and lofty One, that inhahUeth Eternity, whose Name is Holy ; 1
dwell in the hiyh and holy Place : with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to re-
vive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

LONDON,

Printed for R. Davvlman, at the brazen Serpent in
Pauls Churchyard. 16 3 7.

THE TENDEE HEART.

SERMON I.

And as for the king of Jiidah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall
ye say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the uords
which thou hast heard, Because thine heart was tender, dc. — 2 Cheon.
XXXIV. 26.

These words are a part of the message which the prophetess Huldah sent
to good King Josiah ; for as the message was concerning him and his
people, so his answer from her is exact, both for himself and them. That
part which concerned his people is set down in the three foregoing verses ;
that which belongs unto himself is contained in the words now read unto
you, ' But to the king of Judah,' &c. The preface to her message we see
strengthened with authority from God, * Thus saith the Lord God of
Israel ;' which words carry in them the greater force and power from the
majesty of the author. For if words spoken from a king carry authority,
how much more then the word of the Lord of hosts, the King of kings ?
Here is her wisdom, therefore, that she lays aside her own authority, and
speaks in the name of the Lord.

We see that waters of the same colour have not the same nature and
effect, for hot waters are of the same colour with plain ordinary waters,
yet more effectual ; so the words of a man coming from 'a man may seem
at first to be the same with others, yet notwithstanding, the words of
God coming from the Spirit of God, carry a more wonderful excellency in
them even to the hearts of kings. They bind kings, though they labour to
shake them off. They are arrows to pierce their hearts ; if not to save
them, yet to damn them. Therefore she speaks to the king, ' Thus saith
the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard,' &e.

Here we read of Josiah, that he was a man of an upright heart, and one
who did that which was right in the sight of the Lord ; and answerably we
find the Lord to^ deal with him. For he, desirous to know the issue of a
fearful judgment threatened against him and his people, sendeth to Huldah,
a prophetess of the Lord, to be certified therein ; whereupon he receiveth
a full and perfect answer of the Lord's determination, both touching himself
and his people, that they being forewarned might be forearmed ; and by
their timely conversion to the Lord, might procure the aversion* of so
• That is, ' turning awaj.' — Q.

30 THE TENDER HEART.

heavy wrath. He in uprightness sends to inquire, and the Lord returns
him a full and upright answer. Whence we may learn,

Doct. 1. That God doth graciously Jit 2'>roj)hets for j^ersons, andJiis word, to
a people that are upright in their hearts. Where there is a true desire to
know the will of God, there Grod will give men sincere prophets that shall
answer them exactly ; not according to their own lusts, but for their good,
Josiah was an holy man, who, out of a gracious disposition, desirous to be
informed from God what should become of him and his people, sends to
the prophetess Huldah. It was God's mercy that he should have a Hul-
dah, a Jeremiah, to send to ; and it was God's mercy that they should deal
faithfully with him. This is God's mercy to those that are true-hearted.
He will give them teachers suitable to their desires ; but those that are
false-hearted shall have suitable teachers, who shall instruct them according
to their lusts. If they be like Ahab, they shall have four hundred false
prophets to teach falsehood, to please their lusts, 1 Kings xxii. 6 ; but if
they be Davids, they shall have Nathans. If they be Josiahs, they shall
have Huldahs and Jeremiahs. Indeed, Herod may have a John Baptist,
Mark vi. 27 ; but what will he do with him in the end when he doth
come to cross him in his sin ? Then off goes his head.

Use. This should teach us to labour for sincerity, to have our hearts up-
right toivards God ; and then he will send us men of a direct and right spirit,
that shall teach us according to his own heart. But if we be false-hearted,
God will give us teachers that shall teach us, not according to his will, but
to please our own. We shall light upon belly-gods and epicures, and shall
fall into the hands of priests and Jesuits. Where such are, there are the
judgments of God upon the people, because they do not desire to know the
will of God in truth. We see, Ezek. xiv. 3, 4, the people desired to have
a stumblingblock for their iniquity. They were naught,* and would have
idols. Therefore they desired stumblingblocks. They would have false
prophets, that so they might go to hell with some authority. Well, saith
God, they shall have stumblingblocks : for thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, * To every man that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the
stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet
to inquire ; I the Lord will answer him that cometh, according to the mul-
titude of his idols ; according to his own false heart, and not according to
good.' What brought the greatest judgment upon the world, next to hell
itself, I mean antichrist — the terriblest judgment of all, that hath drawn so
many souls to hell — but the wickedness of the place and people, and his
own ambition ? The sins of the people gave life to him. They could not
endure the word of God or plain dealing ; they thought it a simple thing.
They must have more sacrifices, more ceremonies, and a more glorious
government. They would not be content with Christ's government which
he left them, but were weary of this. Therefore he being gone to heaven,
they must have a pope to go before them and lead them to hell. There-
fore let men never excuse those sins, for certainly God saw a great deal of
evil in them, and therefore gave them up to the judgment of antichrist.
But let us magnify God's mercies that hath not so given us up. Thus we
see how graciously God deals with a true-hearted king : he sends him a
true answer of his message.

Ver. 27, * Because thine heart was tender,' &c.

Now here comes a comfortable message to good Josiah, that he should
* That is, ' naughty,' wicked. — G.

THE TENDEE HEART. 31

be taken away and not see the miseries that should befall his people ; the
cause whereof is here set down, ' Because thy heart was tender, and thou
didst humble thyself before God ;' which cause is double.

1. Inioard. 2. Outward.

1. The inward is the tenderness of his heart and humbling of himself.
2. And then the outward expression of it is set down in a double act :

(1.) Rending of clothes. (2,) Weeping.

' Because thou hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me.' After which
comes the promise, ' I have also heard thee,' saith the Lord ; ' behold, I
will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be put in thy grave in peace,
and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place,
and upon the inhabitants of the same.'

I will first remove one doubt, before I come to the tenderness of Josiah's
heart.

Quest. What ! may some say, Is there anything in man that can cause
God to do do him good ?

A71S. No. One thing is the cause of another, but all come from the first
cause. So tenderness of heart vaa,j be some cause of removal of judgment;
but God is the cause of both, for they all come from the first cause,
which is God. So that these words do rather contain an order than a
cause. For God hath set down this order in things, that where there is a
broken heart there shall be a freedom from judgment ; not that tenderness
of heart deserves anything at God's hand, as the papists gather, but because
God hath decreed it so, that where tenderness of heart is, there mercy shall
follow ; as here there was a tender heart in Josiah, therefore mercy did
follow. God's promises are made conditionally ; not that the condition on
our part deserves anything at God's hand, but when God hath given the
condition, he gives the thing promised. So that this is an order which God
hath set down, that where there is grace, mercy shall follow. For where
God intends to do any good, he first works in them a gracious disposition :
after which he looks upon his own work as upon a lovely object, and so
doth give them other blessings. God crowns gi'ace with grace.

By * heart' is not meant the inward material and fleshy part of the body;
but that spiritual part, the soul and afiections thereof. In that it is said
to be ' tender ' or melting, it is a borrowed and metaphorical phrase. Now
in a ' tender heart' these three properties concur :

1. It is sensible. 2. It is pliable. 3. It is yielding.

1. First, A tender heart is always a sensible"^' heart. It hath life, and
therefore sense. There is no living creature but hath life, and sense to
preserve that life. So a tender heart is sensible of any grievance ; for
tenderness doth presuppose life, because nothing that hath not life is
tender. Some senses are not altogether necessary for the being of a living
creature, as hearing and seeing ; but sensibleness is needful to the being of
every living creature. It is a sign of life in a Christian when he is sensible
of inconveniences. Therefore God hath planted such affections in man, as
may preserve the life of man, as fear and love. Fear is that which makes
a man avoid many dangers. Therefore God hath given us fear to cause us
make our peace with him in time, that we may be freed from inconveniences ;
yea, from that greatest of inconveniences, hell fire.

2, 3. Again, A tender heart is 2jliable and yielding. Now that is said
to be yielding and pliable, which yields to the touch of anything that is put
to it, and doth not stand out, as a stone that rebounds back when it is

* That is, ' sensitive.' — G.

32 , THE TENDEB HEART.

thrown against a wall. So that is said to be tender which hath life, and
sense, and is pUable, as wax is yielding and pliable to the disposition of
him that works it, and is apt to receive any impression that is applied to it.
In a tender heart there is no resistance, but it yields presently to every
truth, and hath a pliableness and a fitness to receive any impression, and
to execute any performance ; a fit temper indeed for a heart wrought on
by the Spirit. God must first make us fit, and then use us to work. As
a wheel must first be made round, and then turned round, so the heart
must be first altered, and then used in a renewed way. A tender heart, so
soon as the word is spoken, yields to it. It quakes at threatenings, obeys
precepts, melts at promises, and the promises sweeten the heart. In all
duties concerning God, and all offices of love to men, a tender heart is thus
qualified. But hardness of heart is quite opposite. For, as things dead
and insensible, it will not yield to the touch, but returns back whatsoever
is cast upon it. Such a heart may be broken in pieces, but it will not
receive any impression ; as a stone may be broken, but will not be pliable,
but rebound back again. A hard heart is indeed like wax to the devil, but
like a stone to God or goodness. It is not yielding, but resists and repels
all that is good ; and therefore compared in the Scripture to the adamant
stone. Sometimes it is called a frozen heart, because it is unpliable to
anything. You may break it in pieces, but it is unframeable for any ser-
vice, for any impression ; it will not be wrought upon. But on the con-
trary, a melting and tender heart is sensible, yielding, and fit for any service
both to God and man. Thus we see plainly what a tender heart is. The
point from hence is,

Doct. 2. That it is a supernatural disposition of a true child of God to have
a tender, soft, and a melting heart. I say that a disposition of a true child
of God, and the frame of soul of such an one, to be tender, apprehensive,
and serviceable, is a supernatural disposition ; and of necessity it must be
so, because naturally the heart is of another temper — a stony heart. AU
by nature have stony hearts in respect of spiritual goodness. There may
be a tenderness in regard of natural things ; but in regard of grace, the
heart is stony, and beats back all that is put to it. Say what you will to
a hard heart, it will never yield. A hammer will do no good to a stone.
It may break it in pieces, but not draw it to any form. So to a stony
heart, all the threatenings in the woi'ld will do no good. You may break it
in pieces, but never work upon it. It must be the almighty power of God.
There is nothing in the world so hard as the heart of man. The very
creatures will yield obedience to God ; as flies, and lice, to destroy Pharaoh ;
but Pharaoh himself was so hard-hearted, that after ten plagues he was
ten times the more hardened, Exod. x. 28. Therefore, if a man have not
a melting heart, he is diverted from his proper object ; because God hath
placed affections in us, to be raised presently upon suitable objects. When
any object is offered in the word of God, if our hearts were not corrupted,
we would have correspondent affections. At judgments we would tremble,
at the word of threatenings quake, at promises we would with faith beheve,
and at mercies be comforted ; at directions we would be pliable and yield-
ing. But by nature our hearts are hard. God may threaten, and promise,
and direct, and yet we insensible all the while. Well, all Josiahs, and
all that are gracious, of necessity must have soft hearts. Therefore I will
shew you,

1. How a tender heart is wrought.

2. How it may be preserved and maintained.

THE TENDER HEART.

3. How it may he discerned from the contrary.

1. First, A tender heart is made tender hy him that made it. For no
creature in the world can soften and turn the heart, only God must alter
and change it ; for we are all by nature earthly, dead, and hard. Hence is
it that God doth make that gracious promise, Ezek. xi. 19, ' I will give them
one heart, and put a new spirit within their bowels ; and I will take away
the stony hearts out of their bodies, and give them a heart of flesh ;' that is,
a living, sensible heart.

Quest. But doth God immediately make the heart tender, and change it,
without any help by means ?

Sol. 1. I answer. Means do not make the heart tender, but God through
the use of means softens it by his word. God's word is a hammer to break,
and as fire to melt the hardened heart, Jer. sxiii. 9. And thus it works,
first, when God doth shew to the heart our cursed estate, and opens to
the same the true dangers of the soul, which it is in by nature and custom
of sin, and sets before it the terrors of the last day and present danger of
judgment. When the Spirit of God, by the word, doth convince the soul
to be in a damned estate, dead, born under wrath, and an heir of damna-
tion ; that by nature God frowns, and hell is ready to swallow us up ;
when the soul is thus convinced, then the heart begins to be astonished,
and cries out, * Men and brethren, what shall I do?'_Aets ii. 37. When
the word is thus preached with particular application, it doth good. For a
man may hear the word of God generally, and yet have no broken heart.
But when a Peter comes and saith, * You have crucified the Lord of ^life ;'
and when a Nathan comes to David, and saith, ' Thou art the man,' then
comes the heart to be broken and confounded.

But it is not enough to have the heart broken ; for a pot may be broken
in pieces, and yet be good for nothing ; so may a heart be, through terrors,
and sense of judgment, and yet not be like wax, pliable. Therefore it must
be melting ;- for which cause, when God by his judgments hath cast down
the heart, then comes the Spirit of God, revealing the comfort of the word ;
then the gracious mercy of God in Christ is manifested, that ' there is
mercy with God, that he may be feared,' Ps. cxxx. 4. This being laid open
to the quick, to a dejected soul, hence it comes to be melted and tender ;
for the apprehension of judgment is only a preparing work, which doth break
the heart, and prepare it for tenderness.

Sol. 2. Again, Tenderness of heart is wrought by an apprehension of
tenderness and love in Christ. A soft heart is made soft by the blood of
Christ. Many say, that an adamant cannot be melted with fire, but
by blood. I cannot tell whether this be true or no ; but I am sure nothing
will melt the hard heart of man but the blood of Christ, the passion of our
blessed Saviour. When a man considers of the love that God hath shewed
him in sending of his Son, and doing such great things as he hath done, in
giving of Christ to satisfy his justice, in setting us free from hell, Satan
and death : the consideration of this, with the persuasion that we have
interest in the same, melts the heart, and makes it become tender. And
this must needs be so, because that with the preaching of the gospel unto
broken-hearted sinners cast down, there always goes the Spirit of God,
which works an application of the gospel.

Christ is the first gift to the Church. When God hath given Christ,
then comes the Spirit, and works in the heart a gracious acceptance of
mercy ofiered. The Spirit works an assurance of the love and mercy of
* Qu. ' melted '?— Ed.
YOli. VI. C

34 THE TENDER HEART.

God, Now love and mercy felt, work upon the tender heart a reflective
love to God again. What, hath the great God of heaven and earth sent
Christ into the world for me ? humbled himself to the death of the cross
for me ? and hath he let angels alone, and left many thousands in the
world, to choose me ? and hath he sent his ministers to reveal unto me
this assurance of the love and mercy of God ? This consideration cannot
but work love to God again ; for love is a kind of fire which melts the
heart. So that when our souls are persuaded that God loves us from ever-
lasting, then we reflect our love to him again ; and then our heart says to
God, ' Speak, Lord ; what wilt thou have me to do ?' The soul is pliable
for doing, for suffering, for anything God will have it. Then, ' Speak, Ijord,
for thy servant heareth,' 1 Sam. iii. 9.

And when the heart is thus wrought upon, and made tender by the
Spirit, then afterward in the proceeding of our lives, many things will work
tenderness: as the works of God, his judgments, the word and sacraments,
when they are made effectual by the Spirit of God, work tenderness. The
promises of God also make the heart tender, as Kom. xii. 1, 'I beseech
you, brethren, by the mercies of God, offer up your souls and bodies a
living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.' There is no such like
argument to persuade men to tenderness of heart, as to propound the love
and mercy of God. And so the fear of any judgment will work tenderness.
This made Josiah's heart to melt, but yet this did not work first upon him :
for he having a tender heart before, and being sure of God's love, when he
heard the judgment that should come upon his people, out of love to God
and to his people, his heart melted, not so much for fear of judgment, bat
to think that God should be provoked by the sins of his people.

And thus we have seen how tenderness of heart is wrought. Now I
come to shew,

2. Second, The means how we may preserve this tenderness of heart, because
it is a disposition of God's children. How then shall we preserve ourselves
in such a perpetual temper ? The way to preserve a tender heart is,

1. First, To be under the means whereby God's Spirit will work ; for it is
he by his Spirit that works upon the heart, and doth preserve tenderness
in us ; and he will work only by his own means. All the devices in the
world will not work upon the heart. Therefore let us be under the means
that may preserve tenderness, and hear what God's word says of our estate
by nature, of the wrath and justice of God, and of the judgment that will
shortly come upon all the world. This made Paul to cry, though he knew
that he was the child of God, and free from the law. * Therefore,' saith he,
* knowing the terror of the law, we admonish you.'

2. And then, go into the house of mourning, and present before yourselves
the miserable and forlorn estate of the church of God abroad. It was this
that broke Nehemiah's heart. When he heard that the Jews were in great
affliction and reproach, that the wall of the city was broken down, and the
gates thereof burnt with fire, he sat down and wept, and mourned certain
days, fasted and prayed before the God of heaven, Neh. i. 4. This made
this good man Nehemiah to mourn, so that all the princes of the court
could not comfort him. This also made Moses's heart to melt, when he
looked on his brethren's affliction in Egypt. So we might keep our hearts
tender if we did but set before our eyes the pitiful estate of God's church
abroad, and that we may come to be in such an estate ourselves ere long.

3. And if thou wilt preserve tenderness of heart, labour for a legal and
evangelical faith. We must believe that all the threatenings of God's

THE TENDER HEART. 35

vengeance against tlie wicked shall come to pass. Faith doth make these
things present before our eyes ; for it is the nature of fliith to set things
absent as present before us. AVhat makes the malefactor to tremble and
be cast down, but when he sees that he is ready for to die, is going to the
place of execution, and sees death look him in the face ? So faith setting
the day of judgment before our eyes, will make us to tremble. Therefore
Paul doth so often adjure Timothy by the coming of the Lord Jesus to
judgment, 2 Tim. iv. 1 ; and Enoch set the day of judgment before him,
at the beginning of the world, as we may see in Jude 14. He had a faith,
that set things to come as present, and made him to walk with God. So
if we had an evangelical faith to believe the goodness of God, pardon from
him, and everlasting life, this would preserve tenderness of heart.

4. Again, Good company will j)reserve tenderness of heart, sorting ourselves
with those that are tender-hearted. For the soul will reason thus : Doth
such a one make conscience of swearing, profaning the Sabbath? and doth
he mourn for the miseries of the church ? Then what a hai*d piece of dead
flesh am I, that have nothing in me !

5. Again, If thou wouldst preserve tenderness of heart, by all means
take heed of the least sin against conscience, for the least sin in this kind
makes way for hardness of heart. Sins that are committed against con-
science do darken the understanding, dead the aifection, and take away life;
so that one hath not the least strength to withstand the least temptation.
And so it comes to pass by God's judgment; for when men will live in sins
against conscience, he takes away his Spirit, and gives up the heart from
one degree of hardness to another. For the heart at first being tender,
will endure nothing, but the least sin will trouble it. As water, when it
begins to freeze, will not endure anything, no not so much as the weight of
a pin upon it, but after a while will bear the weight of a cart ; even so at
the beginning, the heart being tender, trembles at the least sin, and will not
bear with any one ; but when it once gives way to sins against conscience,
it ^becomes so frozen that it can endure any sin, and so becomes more and
more hard. Men are so obdurate, having once made a breach in their own
hearts by sins against conscience, that they can endure to commit any
sin ; and therefore God gives them up from one degree of hardness to
another. What will not men do whom God hath given up to hardness of
heart ?

6. Again, If thou wilt preserve tenderness of heart, take heed of sjnritual
drunkenness; that is, that thou be not drunk with an immoderate use of
the creatures ; of setting thy love too much upon outward things. For
what saith the prophet ? ' Wine and women take away the heart,' Hosea
iv. 11 ; that is, the immoderate use of any earthly thing takes away spiritual
sense ; for the more sensible the soul is of outward things, the less it is of
Bpiritual. For as the outward takes away the inward heat, so the love of
one thing abates the love of another. The setting of too much love upon
earthly things, takes away the sense of better things, and hardens the heart.
When the heart is filled with the pleasures and profits of this life, it is not
sensible of any judgment that hangs over the head ; as in the old world,
' they ate and drank, they married and gave in marriage, they bought and
sold, while the flood came upon them and swept all away,' Mat. xxiv. 37.
When a man sets his love upon the creature, the very strength of his soul is
lost. Therefore in the Scripture, God joins prayer and fasting both
together, Mat. xvii. 21 ; that when he would have our hearts raised up to
heaven, we should have all use of earthly things taken away. Therefore

36 THE TENDEK HEAKT.

when we are to go about spiritual duties, we must cut ourselves short in
the use of the creatures. Talk of religion to a carnal man, whose senses
are lost with love of earthly things, he hath no ear for that ; his sense is
quite lost, he hath no relish or savour of anything that is good. Talk to a
covetous man, that hath his soul set upon the things of this life, he hath
no relish of anything else ; his heart is already so hardened to get honour
and wealth, though it be to the ruin of others, that he cares not how hard
it become. Therefore we are bidden to take heed that our hearts be not
overcome with drunkenness and the cares of this life, for these will make a
man to be insensible of spiritual things, Luke sxi. 34.

7. Again, If thou wilt preserve tenderness of heart, take heed of hypocrisy;
for it causeth swelling, and pride makes the heart to contemn others that
be not like unto us. They bless themselves that they live thus and thus,
they think themselves better than any other ; and if they hear the minister
reprove them for sin, they will shift it ofi*, and say. Oh, this belongeth not
to me, but to such a carnal man, and to such a wicked person ; as the
Scribes and Pharisees, who were vile hypocrites, yet they were the cause
of all mischief, and more hard-hearted than Pilate, an heathen man ; for he
would have delivered Christ, but they would not, Luke xxiii. 14, seq. So,
take a Romish hypocrite, that can proudly compliment it at every word
with enticing speech, yet you shall find him more hard hearted than Turk
or Jew ; for full of cruelty and blood is the ' whore of Babylon.' There-
fore, if thou wilt have tenderness of heart, take heed of hypocrisy.

8. Again, Above all things, take heed of great sins, which will harden the
heart ; for little sins do many times not dead the heart, but stir up the
conscience ; but great sins do stond* and dull a man ; as a prick of a pin
will make a man to start, but a heavy blow maketh a man for to be dead
for the present. Therefore take heed of great sins. Thus it was with
David. He sinned in numbering of the people, and for this his heart smote
him ; but when he came to the great and devouring sin of Uriah and Bath-
sheba, this was a great blow that struck him and laid him for dead, till
Nathan came and revived him, 2 Sam. xii. 1. For when men fall into
great sins, their hearts are so hardened, that they go on from sin to sin.
Let us therefore be watchful over our own hearts, to preserve tenderness.
The eye being a tender part, and soonest hurt, how watchful is man by
nature over that, that it take no hurt. So the heart, being a tender thing,
let us preserve it by all watchfulness to keep blows from off it. It is a
terrible thing to keep a wound of some great sin upon the conscience, for it
makes a way for a new breach ; because when the conscience once begins
to be hardened with some great sin, then there is no stop, but we run on
to commit sin with all greediness.

9. Lastly, If thou wilt preserve tenderness of heart, consider the miserable
estate of hardness of heart. Such an one that hath an hard heart is next to
hell itself, to the estate of a damned spirit, a most terrible estate. A hard
heart is neither melted with promises nor broken with threatenings. He
hath no bowels of pity to men or love to God. He forgets all judgment
for things past, and looks for none to come. "When the soul is in this
case, it is fit for nothing but for sin and the devil, whereas a tender-hearted,
man is fit for all good. Let God threaten : he trembles and quakes ; let
God promise : his heart melts and rejoiceth, and makes him even to break
forth into thanksgiving ; let God command : he will perform all ; he is fit
for any good thing to God and man. But when a man's heart is hardened

* That is, ' stun,' = harden. — G.

THE TENDEB HEART. 87

by hypocrisy, covetousness, or custom in sin, he hath no pity, no com-
passion : let God command, threaten, or promise, yet the heart is never a
whit moved. This is a terrible estate of soul.

Now, to speak a little to young men that are like to this holy man Josiah.
Surely his tenderness had some advantage from his years. Let those that
are young by all means labour to keep tenderness of heart ; for if young
persons be good, there is a sweet communion between God and them,
before the heart be pestered with the cares of the world. God delights
much in the prayers of young men, because they come not from so polluted
a soul, hardened with the practices of this world. Let such, therefore, as
are young, take advantage of it, to repent in time of their sins, and let them
not put it off unto their old days. While we are young, let us not neglect
natural tenderness ; although we cannot bring ourselves under the compass
of God's kingdom by it, yet shall we get our hearts the sooner to be tender.
In our youth, therefore, let us not neglect this good opportunity, as good
Josiah did not when he was but young. Therefore let us repent of every
sin betimes, and acquaint ourselves with those that are good ; as it is said,
Heb. iii. 18, * Let us provoke one another daily, while it is called to-day,
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' Let us use
all means to keep our hearts tender. Oh, it is a blessed estate ! We are
fit to live when our hearts are tender ; fit to die, fit to receive anything
from God, fit for duties of honesty to men, for any service to God. But
when we have lost sense and feeling, it must be the almighty power of God
that must recover us again, and not one amongst an hundred comes to good.
Therefore labour to preserve a tender, soft, and melting heart.

Now, ere I proceed, give me leave to answer some cases of conscience, as,

Quest. 1. First, Whether the children of God may be subject to this hard-
ness of heart, opposed to this tenderness ?

Quest. 2. Secondly, Whether a Christian may be more sensible of out-
ward things than of spiritual, as the love of God, or his own sin, and the
like?

Sol. 1. To the first I answer, that the child of God may he hard-hearted.
He may have some degrees of hardness of heart in him. For a Christian
is a compounded creature ; he hath not only body and soul, but flesh and
spirit. He is but in part renewed ; and therefore, having in him both
flesh and spirit, he is subject to hardness of heart ; and it is clear that it
may be so. Examples shew that God's children are not always alike
sensible of the wrath of God and of his mercj'. They do not yield so to
his commands as they should. But what is the reason that God doth
suff'er his children to fall into this hardness of heart ? There is something
in us that makes him give us up unto it, for we are no longer soft than he
works upon us.

Quest. But what doth move him to leave us in this disposition ?

Sol. I answer, he doth it for correction of former neghgences, for sins of
omission ; especially when they neglect some means of grace whereby their
hearts might be kept tender: it is for want of stirring up of God's grace in
them ; for want of an high esteem of grace bestowed upon them ; want of
care of their company, for not associating themselves with such as are
tender-hearted ; and from hence it comes that God suff'ers his children to
fall into hardness of heart.

Quest. But now, from hence ariseth another question : How may a man
know his heart from the heart of a reprobate, seeing that God's children
may have hardness of heart ?

THE TENDER HEAET.

^Ans. I answer, that the heart of a man that is a very reprobate is totally,
wholly ,^ and finally hardened, and it is joined with security and insensible-
ness ; it is joined with obstinacy, and with contempt of the means. But
the child of God hath not total and final hardness of heart, but hath a
sensibleness of it, he feeleth and seeth it. Total hardness doth feel nothing,
but a Christian that hath hardness of heart, doth feel that he hath it ; as a
man that hath the stone in his bladder, feels and knows that he hath a
stone. A hard-hearted man feels nothing, but he that hath but only hard-
ness of heart doth feel : for there is difl'erence between hardness of heart
and a hard heart ; for the child of God may have hardness of heart, but
not a hard heart. Now, I say a child of God that hath hardness of heart
is sensible of his hardness, and performs the actions of a sensible soul : he
useth some good means for the softening of it, for the sense thereof is
grievous to him above all other crosses ; and whiles he is under it, he
thinks that all is not with him as it should be : therefore he complains of
it above all other afflictions, which makes him cry to God, as we may see,
Isa. Ixiii. 17, ' Why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear ?'

Ohj. But some may demand how God doth harden.

Sol. I answer, the cause is first from our own selves ; but he hardens
four ways :

First, Privatively, by withholding and withdrawing his melting and soften-
ing power. For as the sun causeth darkness by withdrawing his light and
warming power, so God withdrawing that melting power whereby we should
be softened, it cannot be but that we must needs be hardened.

_ 2. Secondly, Negativehj, by denying of grace ; by taking away from us
his graces, which are not natural in us. Thus God doth to those whom
he doth absolutely harden ; he takes away that which they have, and so
they become worse than they of themselves were by nature. When men
walk unworthy of the gospel, God takes away very rational life from them,
and gives them up to hardness of heart, that they run on in such courses,
as that they are their own enemies, and bring upon themselves ruin.

3. Thirdly, And as God hardens by privation and negation, so, in the
third place, he hardens hj tradition:'^ by giving us up to the devil, to be
vexed by his troubles, to harden us. It is a fearful judgment. When we
take a course to grieve the Spirit of God, the Spirit will take a course to
grieve us : he will give us up to Satan, to blind and to harden us. So that
though God doth not work, as the author, efiectually in this hardening, yet
as a just judge he doth, by giving us up to Satan and the natural lusts of
our own hearts, which are worse than all the devils in hell.

4. Fourthly and lastly. He doth harden objectively, by propounding good
objects, which, meeting with a wicked heart, make it more hard, as, Isa.
vi. 10, it is said, ' Harden these people's hearts.' How ? By preaching
of the word. A good object, if it lights upon a bad soul, hardens the
heart ; for they that are not bettered by religion, under the means, are so
much the worse by their use. So we see God cannot be impeached with
the hardening of our hearts, because all the cause is from ourselves ; for
whether he hardens by privation, negation, tradition, or by propounding
good objects, it is all from ourselves ; and likewise we have seen that God's
children may have hardness of heart in some measure, but yet it differs
from a reprobate, because they see and feel it, grieve for it, and complain
of it to God.

Quest. The second question is. But whether may a child of God he mor«
* That is, ' giving up.' Cf. 1 Tim. i. 20 for the word.—G.

THE TENDER HEART. 39

sensible of outward joys or crosses, than of spiritual thinfjs ? for this makes
many think they have not tender hearts, because they are more sensible of
outward things than of spiritual.

, Ans. I answer, It is not always alike loith them ; for God's children are
still complaining of something : of their carelessness in good duties, of
their want of strength against corruption. They go mourning when they
have made God to bring them down upon their knees for their hardness of
heart ; but there is an intercourse, in the children of God, between the
flesh and the spirit. They are partly flesh and partly spirit. Therefore
many times, for a while, when the flesh prevails, there may be a sudden
joy and a sudden sorrow, Avhich may be greater than spiritual joy or spiritual
sorrow ; but yet it is not continual. But spiritual sorrow, grief for sin,
though it be not so vehement as, for the sudden, outward sorrow is, yet it
is more constant. Grief for sin is continual ; whereas outward sorrow is
but upon a sudden, though it seem to be more violent.

2. And again, in reyard of their valuing and prizing of earthly things, there
may be a sudden sorrow : for a child of God may, upon a sudden, over-
prize outward things, and esteem them at too high a rate ; but yet after
that, valuing things by good advice, they prize spiritual things far beyond
outward ; and therefore their sorrow and joy is more for spiritual things,
because it is constant. This I speak, not to cherish any neglect in any
Christian, but for comfort to such as are troubled for it ; therefore let such
know, that God will not ' break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking
flax.' If they have but a desire, and by conscionable * use of means, do
shew their desire to be true, they shall have it at last, for Christ doth con-
tinue to make intercession for us ; and if there were no weakness in us,
what need Christ continue to make peace for us ? for peace is made for
those that fall out. Therefore, if there were no falling out between God
and us, what need Christ to continue to make intercession for us ? For
these reasons, we see a child of God, for the present, may be more sensible
of outward things than of spiritual.

Quest. But here another question may be asked, How shall we know
that we have sensibleness and pliableness, or not ?

Ans. I answer. Easily, by applying of the soul unto objects, as 1, to God ;
2, to his word ; 3, to his works ; 4, to man.

We may try our tenderness and pliableness of heart these four ways : |

1. To God. As it is tender from God, so it is tender for God; for the f
three persons of the Trinity. He that hath a tender heart cannot endure
to dishonour God himself, or to hear others dishonour him, either by his
own sins or by others.' He cannot endure to hear God's name blasphemed.
So that they have a tender heart v^^ho when they see Christ in his religion
to be wronged, cannot choose but be afiected with it. So again, a man
hath a tender heart when he yields to the motions of the Holy Ghost.
When the Spirit moves, and he yields, this shews there is a tender heart.
But a hard heart beats back all, and as a stone to the hammer, will not
yield to any motion of God's Spirit.

2. Now, in the second place, to come downward, a tender heart is sen-
sible in regard of the ivord of God; as, first, at the threatenings a true
tender heart will tremble, as Isa. Ixvi. 2, ' To him will I look, even to him ,
that is of a contrite and broken spirit, and trembleth at my words,' A '
man that hath a tender heart will tremble at the signs of the anger of
God : * Shall the lion roar, and the beasts of the forest not be afraid ? '

* That is, ' conscientious.' — G.

THE TENDEK HEART.

Amos iii. 4. Yes, tliey will stand still and tremble at the roaring of the
lion ; but much more will a tender heart tremble when God roars, and
threatens vengeance. A tender heart will tremble when it hears of the
terrors of the Lord at the day of judgment, as Paul did : ' Now knowing
the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men,' 2 Cor. v. 11. It forced him
to be faithful in his office. This use the apostle Peter would have us
make of it : 2 Pet. iii. 11, ' That seeing all these things must be dissolved,
what manner of persons ought we to be in holy conversation and godli-
ness ? ' And so for the promises in the word. The heart is tender when
the word of God doth rejoice a man above all things. How can the heart
but melt at God's promises, for they are the sweetest things that can be.
Therefore when a tender heart hears God's promises, it makes him to
melt and be sensible of them. Again, a tender heart will be pliable to any
direction in the word. To God's call it will answer, ' Here I am ;' Lord,
what wilt thou have me to do ? As Isaiah, when he had once a tender
heart, then ' Send me, Lord,' Isa. vi. 8. So David to God's command,
* Seek ye my face,' answers, * Thy face. Lord, will I seek,' Ps. xxvii. 8.
There is a gracious echo of the soul to God in whatsoever he saith in his
word. And thus a true, tender heart doth yield to the word of God, and
is fit to run on any errand.

3. Thirdly, By applying it to the irorks of God ; for a tender heart quakes
when it doth see the judgment of God abroad upon others. It hastens to
make his peace with God, and to meet him by repentance. So again, a
tender heart rejoiceth at the mercy of God, for it doth see something in it
better than the thing itself; and that is the love of God, from which it doth
proceed.

4. Fourthly, A man may know his heart to be tender and sensible, in
regard of the estate of others, whether they he good or bad. If they be
wicked, he hath a tender heart for them; as David, Ps. cxix. 136, 'Mine
eyes gush out with rivers of water, because men keep not thy law.' So
Paul saith, ' There are many that walk inordinately, of whom I have told
you before, and now tell you weeping,' &c., Phil. iii. 18. So Christ was
sensible of the misery of Jerusalem, wept for it, and a little while after,
shed his own blood for it. Mat. xxiii. 37. Thus had he a tender heart.
But when Christ looked to God's decree, he saith, ' Father, I thank thee,
Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise
and noble, and hast revealed them unto babes,' Mat. xi. 25. And so like-
wise for those that are good, in giving and forgiving ; in giving, they give
not only the thing, but they give their hearts and affections with it ; and
so in forgiving, they apprehend Christ's love in forgiving them ; therefore
they forgive others. So for works, will God have a tender heart to do any-
thing, it will do it. If he will have it mourn, it will mourn ; if to rejoice,
it will rejoice ; it is fit for every good work. By these marks we may know
whether we have tender hearts or no.

But to apply this ; how is this affection of Josiah in the hearts of men
in these days ? How many have melting hearts when they hear God
blasphemed, and the religion of Christ wronged ? How few are there
that yield to the motions of the Spirit ! We may take up a wonderful
complaint of the hardness of men's hearts in these days, who never
tremble at the word of God. Neither his promises, nor threatenings, nor
commands will melt their hearts ; but this is certain, that they which are
not better under religion, by the means of grace, are much the worse.
And how sensible are we of the church's miseries ? For a tender heart is

THE TENDER HEART.

sensible of the miseries of the church, as being members of the same body,
whereof Christ is the head. But men now-a-days are so far from melting
hearts, that they want natural affection, as Paul foretells of such in the
latter times, 1 Tim. iv. 1. They have less bowels of pity in them, when
they hear how it goes with the church abroad, than very pagans and
heathens. This shews they have no tender hearts, that they are not knit
to Christ by faith, who is the head ; nor to the church, the body, in love.
How is thy heart affected to men when they commit any sin against God,
as idolaters, swearers, drunkards, liars, and the like ? Is it mercy to let
these go on in their sins towards hell ? No, this is cruelty ; but mercy is
to be shewed unto them, in restraining men from their wicked courses.
Therefore do not think thou shewest mercy unto them by letting them
alone in sin, but exhort and instruct them. Coldness and deadness is a
spiritual disease in these days. But surely they that have the Spirit of
God warming their hearts, are sensible of their own good and ill, and of
the good and ill of the time. Well, if you will know you have a tender
heart, look to God, look to his word, to his works, to yourselves, and
others ; and so you shall know whether you have tender hearts or not.

Quest. But here may be another question asked. How shall men recover
themselves, when they are subject to this hardness, deadness, and insen-
sibleness ? If after examination a man find himself to be thus, how shall
he recover himself out of this estate. I answer,

Ans. 1. First, As when things are cold we bring them to the fire to heat
and melt, so brlnff ice our cold hearts to the fire of the love of Christ ; consider
we of our sins against Christ, and of Christ's love towards us ; dwell upon
this meditation. Think what great love Christ hath shewed unto us, and
how little we have deserved, and this will make our hearts to melt, and be
as pliable as wax before the sun.

2. Secondly, If thou wilt have this tender and melting heart, then use the
means ; be always under the sunshine of the gospel. Be under God's sun-
shine, that he may melt thy heart ; be constant in good means ; and help
one another. ' We must provoke one another daily, lest any be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin,' Heb. iii. 13. Physicians love not to
give physic to themselves. So a man is not always fit to help himself
when he is not right ; but good company is fit to do it. ' Did not our hearts
bm-n within us while he talked with us?' said the two disciples, holding
communion each with other at Emmaus, Luke xxiv. 32. For then Christ
comes and makes a third, joins with them, and so makes their hearts burn
within them. So Christ saith, ' Where two or three are met together m his
name, he is in the midst of them,' Mat. xviii. 20. Now they were under the pro-
mise, therefore he affords his presence. Where two hold communion together,
there Christ will make a third. Therefore let us use the help of others,
seeing David could not recover himself, being a prophet, but he must have
a Nathan to help him, 2 Sam. xii. 7. Therefore if we would recover our-
selves from hard and insensible hearts, let us use the help one of another.^

3. Thirdly, We must with boldness and reverence challenge the covenant of
grace; for this is the covenant that God hath made with us, to give us
tender hearts, hearts of flesh, as Ezek. xi. 19, « I will give them one heart,
and put a new spirit within their bowels ; I will take away the stony hearts
out of their bodies, and I will give them a heart of flesh. Now seeing this
is a covenant God hath made, to give us fleshly hearts and to take away
our stony, let us challenge him with his promise, and go to him by prayer.
Entreat him to give thee a fleshly heart ; go to him, wait his time, for that

THE TENDER HEART.

is the best time. Therefore wait though he do not hear at first. These are
the means to bring tenderness of heart.

Now, that ye may be stirred up to this duty, namely, to get a soft and
tender heart, mark here,

1. First, What an excellent thing a tender heart is. God hath promised
to dwell in such an heart, and is it an excellent thing to have God dwell in
our hearts, as he hath promised, Isa. Ivii. 15, ' For thus saith he that is
high and excellent, he that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is the Holy
One : I will dwell in the high and holy place, and with him also that is of
a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to give
life to them that are of a contrite heart?' So Isa. Ixvi. 2, ' To him will I
look, even to him that is poor and contrite in spirit, and doth tremble at
my words.' Now God having promised to dwell where there is a soft heart,
and no hardness, no rocks to keep him out ; can God come into a heart
without a blessing ? Can he be separated from goodness, which is good-
ness itself ? When the heart therefore is pliable and thus tender, there is
an immediate communion between the soul and God ; and can that heart
be miserable that hath communion with God ? Surely no.

2. Secondly, Consider that this doth Jit a man for the end for which he ivas
created. A man is never fit for that end for which he was made, but when
he hath a tender heart ; and what are we redeemed for, but that we should
serve God ? And who is fit to be put in the service of God but he that
hath begged a tender heart of God ?

3. Thirdly, To stir you up to labour for this, consider that a tender heart
is fit for any blessedness. It is capable of any beatitude. What makes a
man blessed in anything but a tender heart ? This will make a man to
hear the word, to read, to shew mercies to others. ' Blessed are the poor
in spirit,' saith Christ, ' for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' A tender
heart is blessed, because that only heareth God's word, and doth it ; and
it is always a merciful heart, and therefore blessed.

4. Again, Consider the xvretched estate of a heart contrary, that is not tender,
and will not yield. Oh what a wonderful hardness would the heart of man
grow to, if we do not follow it with means to soften it ! What a fearful
thing was it to see what strange things fell out at Christ's death, what dark-
ness there was, what thunders and lightnings. The veil of the Temple
rent, the sun was turned into darkness, the graves opened, and the dead
did rise, yet notwithstanding none of these would make the hypocritical
Pharisees to tremble, but they mocked at it, although it made a very
heathen man confess it the work of God, Mat. xxvii. 45-54. For a ceremonial
hypocrite is more hard than a Turk, Jew, or Pagan. All the judgments of
God upon Pharaoh were not so great as hardness of heart. The papists,
after they have been at their superstitious devotion, are fittest for powder-
plots and treasons, because their hearts are so much more hardened. What
fearful things may a man come to, if he give way to hardness of heart !
He ma}^ come to an estate like the devil, yea, worse than Judas, for he had
some sensibleness of his sin ; he confessed he had sinned in betraying the
innocent blood. But many of these hypocrites have no sensibleness at all,
which is a fearful thing. Eli's children hearkened not to the voice of their
father, because that the Lord had a purpose to destroy them, 1 Sam. ii. 25.
So it is in this case a shrewd sign that God will destroy those that are so
insensible that nothing will work upon them. But these hypocrites shall
be sensible one day, when they shall wish they were as insensible as in
their lifetime they were. But it will be an unfruitful repentance to repent

THE TENDER HEAET. 43

in hell ; for there a man shall get no benefit by his repentance, seeing there
they cannot shake ofi" the execution of God's judgment, as thej^ shake off
the threatenings of his judgments here. Well, to this fearful end, before it be
long, must every one that hath a hard heai't come, unless they repent.
Therefore let every one be persuaded to labour for a tender, pliable, yield-
ing, and sensible heart here, else we shall have it hereafter against our wills,
when it will do us no good ; for then hypocrites shall be sensible against
their wills, though tbey would not be sensible in this life.

And thus I have done with the first inward cause in Josiah that moved
God so to respect him, namely, tenderness of heart.

THE ART OF SELF-HUMBLING.

SERMON II.

Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God,
when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants
thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep
before me, dc.—'l Chron. XXXIV. 27.

Of tenderness of heart, the first inward cause in Josiah, which moved God
to pity him, so as he should not be an eye-witness of the fearful calami-
ties to come upon his land and people, is largely spoken in the former
sermon ; wherein is also shewed how it is wrought, preserved, discerned,
recovei'ed when it is lost ; what encouragements we have to seek and labour
for it, with some other things which I will not here repeat, but fall directly
upon that which follows, ' And thou didst humble thyself before God.' In
which words we have set down the second inward cause in Josiah, that
moved God to shew mercy unto him ; the humbling of himself. ' And
thou didst humble thyself before God.' Tenderness of heart and humbling
a man's self go both together ; for things that are hard will not yield nor
bow. A great iron bar will not bow, a hard stony heart will not yield.
Now, therefore, humbling of ourselves, the making of us as low as the
ground itself, is added unto tenderness ; for the soul being once tender and
melting, is fit to be humbled, yea, cares not how low it be abased, so
mercy may follow. For the better unfolding of the words, we will con-
sider,

1. The person that did humble himself: ' Josiah,' a king, a great man.

2. Humiliation itself, and the qualities of it: ' and humbledst thyself before
God,' which argued the sincerity of it.

3. The occasion of it : ' when thou heardest the words against this place,
and against the inhabitants thereof.'

4. The outward expression of it, in weeping and rending his clothes; which
we will handle in their place.

1. First, for the person, ' Thou didst humble thyself,* Josiah a king,
who was tenderly brought up, and highly advanced ; a thing which makes
the work so much the more commendable ; whence we learn,

Doct. 1. That it is a disposition not unbefitting kings to humble themselves
"before God. For howsoever they are gods downward, to those that are under

THE ART OF SELF- HUMBLING.

them, yet if they look upward, what are kings ? The greater light hides the
lesser. What are all the inhahitants of the earth in his sight, hut as a
drop of a bucket, as dust upon the balance, of no moment ! Isa. _xl. 15.
« I have said you are gods, but you shall die like men,' Ps. Ixxxii. 6, 7.
For howsoever the saints of God differ from other men in regard of their
use, and the inscription God hath set upon them, yet they are of the same
stuff, dust, as others are. And so kings, though in civil respects they differ
from other men, yet are they of the same metal, and shall end in death,
all their glory must lie in the dust.

Therefore it is not unbefitting kings to humble themselves before God,
seeing they have to deal with him who is a ' consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29,
before whom the very angels cover their faces. 1 say it is no shame for
the greatest monarch of the earth to abase himself when he hath to do
with God ; yea, kings, of all other persons, ought most to humble theni-
selves, to shew their thankfulness to God, who hath raised them from their
brethren to be heads of his people. And considering the endowments
which kings usually have, they are bound to humble themselves, as also
in regard of the authority and power which God hath put into their hands,
saying, ' By me kings reign,' Prov. viii. 15. But usually we see, from the
beginning of the world, that kings forget God. Where there is not grace
above nature, there kings will not stoop to Christ ; but so far as it agrees
with their pleasure and will, so far shall Christ be served, and no farther.
But yet God hath always raised up some nursing fathers and mothers,

. as he hath done to us, for which we ought to bless God, — who have and

' do make conscience of this mentioned duty, so well_ beseeming Christian
princes, as in sundry other respects, so also in this, that therein they
might be exemplary to the people. For no doubt but Josiah did this
also, that his people might not think it a shame for them to humble them-
selves before God, whenas he their king, tender in years, and subjectto no
earthly man, did before them, in his own person, prostrate himself in the
humblest manner before the great God of heaven and earth. _

As that ointment poured upon Aaron's head fell from his head to the
skirts, and so spread itself to the rest of the parts, even to his feet, Ps.
cxxxiii. 2, so a good example in a king descends down to the lowest subjects,
as the rain from the mountains into the valleys. Therefore a king should
first begin to humble himself. Kings are called fathers to their subjects,
because^they should bear a loving and holy affection to their people, that
when anything troubles the subjects, they should be affected with it.
Governors are not to have a distinct good from their subjects, but the wel-
fare of the subjects should be the glory of their head. Therefore Josiah
took the judgments threatened as his own: howsoever his estate was
nothing unto theirs.

It is said moreover, ' Thou didst humble thyself.' He was both the
agent and the patient, the worker and the object of his work : it came
from him, and ended in him. Humiliation is a reflected action : Josiah
humbled himself. And certainly this is that true humiliation, the humbling
of ourselves ; for it is no thanks for a man to be humbled by God, as
Pharaoh was ; for God can humble and pull down the proudest that do
oppose his church. God by this gets himself glory. But here is the
glory of a Christian, that he hath got grace from God to humble himself;
which humbhng is, from our own judgment, and upon discerning of good
grounds, to bring our affections to stoop unto God ; to humble ourselves.
Many are humbled that are not humble ; many are cast down that have

46 THE ART OF SELF-HUMBLING.

proud hearts still, as Pharaoh had. It is said, ' Thou humbledst thyself.'
Then we learn,

Doct. 2. That the actions of [trace are reflected actions. They begin from a
man's self, and end in a man's self; yet we must not exclude the Spirit of
God ; for he doth not say, thou from thyself didst humble thyself, but ' thou
didst humble thyself.' We have grace from God to humble ourselves. So
that the Spirit of God doth work upon us as upon fit subjects, in which
grace doth work. Though such works be the works of God, yet they are
said to be ours, because God doth work them in us and by us. We are
said to humble ourselves, because we are temples wherein he works, seeing
he useth the parts of our soul, as the understanding, the will, and the
affections, in the work. Therefore it is foolish for the papists to say, good
works be our own, as from ourselves. No ; good works, say we, are ours,
as effects of the Spirit in us. But for the further expression of this
humbling of ourselves before God, we will consider,

1. The kinds and degrees of it.

2. Some directions how we may humble ourselves.

3. The motives to move us to it.

4. The notes whereby it may be known.

1. First, for the nature and kinds of it ; we must know that humiliation
is either

(1.) Inward, in the mind first of all, and then in the affections; or,

(2.) Outward, in expression of ivords, and likewise in carriage.

(1.) To begin with the first inward humiliation in the mind, in regard of
judgment and knowledge, is, when our understandings are convinced, that we
are as we are ; when we are not high-minded, but when we judge meanly
and basely of ourselves, both in regard of our beginning and dependency
upon God, having all from him, both life, motion, and being ; and also in
regard of our end, what we shall be ere long. All glory shall end in the
dust, all honour in the grave, and all riches in poverty. And withal, true
humiliation is also in regard of spiritual respects, when we judge aright
how base and vile we are in regard of our natural corruption, that we are
by nature not only guilty of Adam's sin, but that we have, besides that,
wrapt ourselves in a thousand more guilts by our sinful course of life, and
that we have nothing of our own, no, not power to do the least good thing.
When we look upon any vile person, we may see our own image. So that
if God had not been gracious unto us, we should have been as bad as they.
In a word, inward conviction of our natural frailty and misery, in regard of
the filthy and foul stain of sin in our nature and actions, and of the many
guilts of spiritual and temporal plagues in this life and that which is to
come, is that inward humiliation in the judgment or understanding.

Again, Inward humihation, besides spiritual conviction, is when there are
affections of humiliation. And what be those ? Shame, sorrow, fear, and
such like penal afflictive affections. For, upon a right conviction of the
understanding, the soul comes to be stricken with shame that we are in
such a case as we are ; especially when we consider God's goodness to us,
and our dealing with him. This will breed shame and abasement, as it did
in Daniel. Shame and sorrow ever follow sin, first or last, as the apostle
demands, Rom. vi. 21, ' What fruit had ye then in those things whereof
ye are now ashamed ? ' After conviction of judgment there is always
shame ; and likewise there is sorrow and grief. For God hath made the
inward faculties of the soul so, that upon the apprehension of the under-
standing, the heart comes to be stricken through with grief, which works

THE AKT OF SELF-HUMBLING. 47

upon our souls. Therefore we are said in Scripture to afflict ourselves ;
that is, -when we set ourselves upon meditation of our deserts. Hereupon
we cannot but be affected inwardly, for these sorrows are so many daggers
to pierce through the heart.

The third penal affection is, fear and trembling before GocVs judgments
and his threatenings, a fear of the majesty of God, whom we have offended,
which is able to send us to hell if his mercies were not beyond our deserts.
But his mercy it is, that we are not consumed. A fear of this great God is
a part of this inward humiliation. So we see what inward humiliation is :
first, a conviction of the judgment ; and then it pi'oceeds to inward afflic-
tive affections, as grief, shame, fear, which, when upon good ground and fit
objects, they are wrought in us by the Holy Ghost, they are parts of inward
humiliation. But as for the wicked, they drown themselves in their pro-
faneness, because they would not be ashamed, nor fear, nor grieve for them.
But this makes way for terrible shame, sorrow, and fear afterwards ; for
those that will not shame, grieve, and fear here, shall be ashamed before
God and his angels at the day of judgment, and shall be tormented in hell
for ever.

2. Secondly, His onhvard humiliation is expressed and manifested in
words, in outward behaviour and carriage. The words which he used are
not here set down ; but certainly Josiah did speak words when he humbled
himself. It was not a dumb show, but done with his outward expression
and his inward affection. This is evident by those words of the text, ' I
have heard thee also,' saith the Lord. Without doubt, therefore, he did
speak something. But because true sorrow cannot speak distinctly, — for a
broken soul can speak but broken words, — therefore his words are not here
set down, but yet God heard them well enough. And indeed, so it is some-
times, that the grief for the affliction may be stronger than the faculty of
speech, so that a man cannot speak for grief. As a heathen man, by light
of nature, did weep and grieve for his friends, but when his child came to be
killed before him, he stood like a stone, because his sorrow was so great
that it exceeded all expression. So humiliation may so exceed that it cannot
be expressed in words ; as David himself, when he was told of his sins by
Nathan, did not express all his sorrow, but saith, ' I have sinned ;' yet
afterwards, he makes the 51st Psalm, a composed speech for supply, a fit
pattern for an humble and broken soul. So doubtless there was outward
expression of words in Josiah, although they be not here set down. This
speech, which is a part of humiliation, is called a confession of our sins to
God ; with it should be joined hatred and grief afflictive, as also a depre-
cation and desire that God would remove the judgment which we have
deserved by our sins ; and likewise a justification of God, in what he hath
laid or may lay upon us. Lord, thou art righteous and just in all thy judg-
ments ; shame and confusion belongeth unto me ; my sins have deserved
that thou shouldest pour down thy vengeance upon me ; it is thy great
mercy that I am not consumed. The good thief upon the cross justified
God, saying, ' We are here justly for our deserts ; but this man doth suffer
wrongfully,' Luke xxiii. 41. Justification and self-condemnation go with
humihation. This is the outward expression in words. Now the outward
humiliation in respect of his carriage, is here directly set down in two acts :

1. Rending of clothes. And 2. Weeping.

But of these I shall speak afterwards when I come at them. Thus we
have seen the degrees and kinds of humiliation.

Seeing it is such a necessary qualification, for humiliation is a funda-

48 THE ART OF SELF-HUMBLING.

mental grace tliat gives strength to all other graces ; seeing, I say, it is such
a necessary temper of a holy gracious man to be humble ; how may we
come to humble ourselves as we should do ? I answer, Let us take these
directions :

1. First, Get j)oor S2nrits, that is, spirits to see the wants in ourselves
and in the creature ; the emptiness of all earthly things without God's
favour ; the insufficiency of ourselves and of the creature at the day of judg-
ment ; for what the wise man saith of riches may be truly said of all other
things under the sun : they avail not in the day of wrath, but righteousness
delivereth from death, Prov. xi. 4.

Josiah was not poor in respect of the world, for he was a king ; but he
was * poor in spirit,' because he saw an emptiness in himself. He knew
his kindgom could not shield him from God's judgment, if he were once
angry.

(1.) Let us consider our original. From whence came we ? From the
earth, from nothing. Whither go we ? To the earth, to nothing. And
in respect of spiritual things, we have nothing. We are not able to do
anything of ourselves, no, not so much as to think a good thought.

(2.) Likewise, consider we the guilt of our sins. What do we deserve ?
Hell and damnation, to have our portion with hypocrites in that * lake that
burneth with fire and brimstone.'

(3.) Let us have before our eyes the picture of old Adam, our sinful
nature : how we are drawn away by every object ; how ready to be proud
of anything ; how unable to resist the least sin ; how ready to be cast down
under every affliction ; that we cannot rejoice in any blessing ; that we have
no strength of ourselves to perform any good or suffer ill ; in a word, how
that we carry a nature about us indisposed to good, and prone to all evil.
This consideration humbled Paul, and made him to cry out, when no other
afflictions could move him, ' miserable man that I am, who shall deliver
me from this body of death ? ' Kom. vii. 24. By this means we come to be
poor in spirit.

2. If we would have humble spirits, let us bring ourselves into the presence
of the great God: set ourselves in his presence, and consider of his attributes,
his works of justice abroad in the world, and open'^ ourselves in particular.

Consider his wisdom, holiness, power, and strength, with our own. It
will make us abhor ourselves, and repent in dust and ashes. Let us bring
ourselves into God's presence, be under the means, under his word, that
there we may see ourselves ripped up, and see what we are. As Job, when
he brought himself into God's presence, said, ' I abhor myself, and repent
in dust and ashes,' Job xlii. 6. Job thought himself somebody before ; but
when God comes to examine him, and upon examination found that he
could not give a reason of the creature, much less of the Lord's, afflicting
his children, then he saith, * I abhor myself.' So Abraham, the more he
talked with God, the more he did see himself but dust and ashes. This is
the language of the holy men in Scripture, when they have to deal or think
of God. ' I am not worthy,' says John Baptist, John i. 27. So Paul : * I
am not worthy to be called an apostle,' 1 Cor. xv. 9. So the centurion :
' I am not worthy thou shouldst come into my house,' Mat. viii. 8. ' I am
less than the least of thy blessings,' saith Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 10. Thus
let us come into the presence of God, under the means of his word, and
then we shall see our own vileness, which will work humiliation ; for, as
the apostle saith, when a poor simple man doth come, and hears the pro-

* Qu. ' upon ' ? — Ed.

THE ART OF SELF-HUMBLING. 49

phecy, that is, tlie word of God, with application unto himself, laying open
his particular sins, doubtless he will say, God is in you, 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25.

3. That we may humble ourselves, let us be content to hear of oar sins
and baseness by others. Let us be content that others should acquaint us
with anything that may humble us. Proud men are the devil's pipes, and
flatterers the musicians to blow these pipes. Therefore it is, that though
men have nothing of their own, yet they love to give heed to flatterers, to
blow their bladder full, which do rob them of themselves ; whereas a true,
wise man, will be content to hear of anything that may humble him before
God.

4. And withal, that we may humble ourselves, look to the time to come,
what ice shall be ere long, earth and dust ; and at the day of judgment we
must be stripped of all. What should puff" us up in this world ? All our
glory shall end in shame, all magnificency in confusion, all riches in poverty.
It is a strange thing that the devil should raise men to be proud of that
which they have not of their own, but of such things which they have
borrowed and begged ; as for men to be proud of themselves in regard of
their parents. So, many there are who think the better of themselves for
their apparel, when yet they are clothed with nothing of their own, and so
are proud of the very creature. But thus the devil hath besotted our nature,
to make us glory in that which should abase us, and to think the better of
ourselves, for that which is none of our own. Nay, many in the church of
God, are so far from humbling themselves, that they come to manifest their
pride, to shew themselves, to see and to be seen. Thus the devil besots
many thousand silly creatures, that come in vainglory into the house of
God ; that whereas they should humble themselves before him, they are
puffed up with a base empty pride, even before God. Therefore let us take
notice of our wonderful proneness to have a conceit of ourselves ; for if a
man have a new fashion, or some new thing, which nobody else knows
besides himself, how wonderful conceited will he be of himself ! Let us
take notice, I say, of our proneness to this sin of pride ; for the best are
prone to it. Consider, it is a wonderful hateful sin, a sin of sins, that God
most hates. It was this sin that made him thrust Adam out of paradise.
It was this sin which made him thrust the evil angels out of heaven, who
shall never come there again. Yea, it is a sin that God cures with other
sins, so far he hateth it ; as Paul, being subject to be proud through the
abundance of revelations, was cured of it by a prick in the flesh : being
exercised with some dangerous, noisome, and strange cure. Indeed, it is
profitable for some men to fall, that so by their humiliation for infirmities,
they may be cured of this great, this sacrilegious sin.* And why is it called
a sacrilegious sin ? Because it robs God of his glory. For God hath said,
' My glory I will not give to another,' Isa. xlii. 8. Is not the grace, good-
ness, and mercy of God sufficient for us, but we must enter into his pre-
rogatives, and exalt ourselves ? We are both idols and idol- worshippers,
when we think highly of ourselves, for we make ourselves idols. Now God
hates idolatry ; but pride is a sacrilege, therefore God hates pride.

■ 5. If we would humble ourselves, let iis set before us the example of our
blessed Saviour; for we must be conformable to him, by whom we hope to
be saved. He left heaven, took our base nature, and humbled himself to
the death of the cross, yea, to the washing of his disciples' feet, and among
the rest, washed Judas's feet, and so sufi'ered himself to be killed as a
traitor, Philip, ii. 5-7 ; and all this to satisfy the wrath of God for us, and
* Cf. Augustine in references and quotations of note y, Vol. III. p. 531. — G.

VOL. YI. D

50 THE ABT OF SELF-HUMBLING.

that he might be a pattern for us to be like-minded. Therefore, if we
would humble ourselves by pattern, here is a pattern without all exception.
Let us be transformed into the likeness of him ; yea, the more we think of
him, the more we shall be humbled. For it is impossible for a man to
dwell upon this meditation of Christ in humility, and with faith to apply it
to himself, that he is his particular Saviour, but this faith will abase the
heart, and bring it to be like Christ in all spiritual representation. A heart
that believeth in Christ will be humbled like Christ. It will be turned
from all fleshly conceit of excellency, to be like him. Is it possible, if a
man consider he is to be saved by an abased and humble Saviour, that was
pliable to every base service, that had not a house to hide himself ; I say,
is it possible that he which considers of this, should ever be willingly or
wilfully proud ? Do we hope to be saved by Christ, and will we not be
like him ? When we were firebrands of hell, he humbled himself to the
death of the cross, left heaven and happiness a- while, and took our shame,
to be a pattern to us. We know that Christ was brought into the world
by a humble virgin. So the heart wherein he dwells must be an humble
heart. If we have true faith in Christ, it will cast us down, and make us
to be humbled. For it is impossible that a man should have faith to chal-
lenge any part in Christ, except he be conformed to the image of Chi'ist in
humility. Therefore let us take counsel of Christ : ' Learn of me, for I am
humble and meek ; and so you shall find rest to your souls,' Mat. xi. 29.

Lastly, That we may humble ourselves, let us ivork upon our own souls hy
reasoning, discoursing, and speaking to our own hearts. For the soul hath a
faculty to work upon itself. Now this, being a reflected action, to humble
ourselves, it must be done by some inward action ; and what is that ? To
discourse thus : If so be a prince should but frown upon me when I have
ofiiended his law, in what case should I be ! Yet, when the great God of
heaven threatens, what an atheistical unbelieving heart have I, that can be
moved at the threatenings of a mortal man, that is but dust and ashes, and
yet cannot be moved with the threatenings of the great God ! Consider
also, if a man had been so kind and bountiful to me, if I should reward his
kindness with unkindness, I should have been ashamed, and have covered
my face with shame ; and yet how unkind have I been unto God, that hath
been so kind to me, and yet I never a whit ashamed ! If a friend should
have come to me, and I have given him no entertainment, what a shame
were this ! But yet how often hath the Holy Ghost knocked at the door
of my heart, and suggested many holy motions into me of mortification,
repentance, and newness of life, yet notwithstanding I have given him the
repulse, opposed the outward means of grace, and have thought myself un-
worthy of it ; what a shame is this !

Thus, if we compare our carriage in earthly things with our carriage in
heavenly, this will be a means to work upon our hearts, inwardly to humble
ourselves. Thus was David abased ; for when Nathan came and told him
of a rich man, who having many sheep, spared his own and took away a
poor man's, which was all that he had ; when David considered that he
had so dealt with Uriah, he was dejected and ashamed of his own courses.
Let us labour to work our hearts to humility, into true sorrow, shame, true
fear, that so we may have God to pity and respect us, who only doth regard
a humble soul. Thus we have seen some directions how we may come to
humble ourselves.

Further, There is an order, method, and agreement in these reflected
actions, when we turn the edge of our own souls upon ourselves and

THE ART OF SELF-HUMBLING.

examine ourselves ; for the way that leads to rest is by the examination of
ourselves. We must examine ourselves strictly, and then bring ourselves
before God, judge and condemn ourselves ; for humiliation is a kind of
execution. Examination leads to all the rest. So, then, this is the order
of our actions ; there is examination of ourselves strictly before God, then
indicting ourselves, after that comes judging of ourselves.

Oh that we could be brought to these inward reflected actions, to examine
indict, judge, and condemn ourselves, that so we might spare God a labour,
and so all things might go well with us !

3. Now I come to the third thing I propounded, the motives to move us
to get this humiliation.

(1.) First, Let us consider of the gracious promises that are made to this
disposition of humbling ourselves; as Isa. Ivii. 15, ' For thus saith he that is
holy and excellent, he that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is the Holy
One ; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of an humble
and contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to give life to
them that are of a contrite heart.' So there is a promise that God will
give grace to the humble. An example of mercy in this kind we have in
Manasseh, who, though a very wicked man, yet because he humbled him-
self, obtained mercy. Peter humbled himself, and David humbled himself,
and both found mercy. And so likewise Josiah ; yea, and in James iv. 10,
we are bid to ' humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and he will
exalt us in due time.' There is the promise. Yea, every branch of humi-^
liation hath a promise. As confession of sins, if we confess and forsake
our sins, we shall have mercy and find pardon. So those that judge them-
selves shall not be judged.

A humble heart is a vessel of all graces. It is a grace itself, and a vessel
of grace. It doth better the soul and make it holy, for the soul is never
fitter for God than when it is humbled. It is a fundamental grace that
gives strength to all other graces. So much humility, so much grace. For
according to the measure of humiliation is the measure of other grace,
because a humble heart hath in it a spiritual emptiness. Humility emptieth
the heart for God to fill it. If the heart be emptied of temporal things,
then it must needs be filled with spiritual things ; for nature abhorreth
emptiness ; grace much more. When the heart is made low, there is a
spiritual emptiness, and what fills this up but the Spirit of God ? In that
measure we empty ourselves, in that measure we are filled with the fulness
of God. When a man is humbled, he is fit for all good; but when he is
proud, he is fit for all ill, and beats back all good. God hath but two
heavens to dwell in ; the heaven of heavens, and the heart of a poor humble
man. The proud swelling heart, that is full of ambition, high conceits, and
self-dependence, will not endure to have God to enter ; but he dwells largely
and easily in the heart of an humble man. If we will dwell in heaven
hereafter, let us humble ourselves now. The rich in themselves are sent
' empty away ;' the humble soul is a rich soul, rich in God ; and therefore
God regards the lowly and resists the proud. As all the water that is upon
the hills runs into the valleys, so all grace goes to the humble. ' The moun-
tains of Gilboa are accursed,' 2 Sam. i. 21. So there is a curse upon pride,
because it will not yield to God.

(2.) Again, All outward actions benefit other men; hut this inward action of
humbling a mans self m,akes the soul itself good.

(3.) An humble soul is a secure and safe soul; for a man that is not high,
but of a low stature, needs not to fear falling. A humble soul is a safe

52 THE AET OF SELF-HUMBLING.

soul ; — safe in regard of outward troubles ; for when we have humbled our-
selves, God needs not follow us with any other judgment : safe, in regard
of inward vexation or any trouble by God ; for when the soul hath
brought itself low, and laid itself level as the ground, then God ceaseth
to afHict it. Will the ploughman plough when he hath broken up the
ground enough ? or doth he delight in breaking up the ground ? See
what Isaiah saith to this purpose in chap, xxviii. 28. When God seeth
that a man hath abased himself, he will not follow with any other judgment ;
such a one may say to God, Lord, I have kept court in mine own conscience
already, I have humbled and judged myself, therefore do not thou judge
me ; I am ready to do whatsoever thou wilt, and to sufler what thou wilt
have me. I have deserved worse a thousand times, but. Lord,, remember I
am but dust and ashes. Thus God spares his labour when the soul hath
humbled itself. But if we do not do this ourselves, God will take us in
hand ; for God will have but one God, Now if we will be gods, to exalt
ourselves, he must take us in hand to humble us, either first or last. And
is it not better for us to humble ourselves than for God to give us up to the
merciless rage and fury of men, for them to humble us, or to fall into the
hands of God, who is a ' consuming fire' ? For when we accuse and judge
ourselves, we prevent much shame and sorrow. What is the reason God
hath given us up to shame and crosses in this world, but because we have
not humbled ourselves ? What is the reason many are damned in hell ?
Because God hath given them reason, judgment, and afiections, but they
have not used them for themselves, to examine their ways, whether they
were in the state of condemnation or salvation. They never used their
afiections and judgment to this end, therefore God was forced to take them
in hand. Well saith Austin, all men must be humbled one way or other ;
either we must humble ourselves or God will ; * if we will do this ourselves,
the apostle promiseth, we shall not be judged of the Lord, 1 Cor. xi. 31.
But we do not these things as we should, because it is a secret action. We love
to do things that the world may take notice of, but this inward humiliation
can only be seen by God, and by our own consciences. Let these motives
therefore stir us up to humble ourselves, for humbled we must be by one
way or other. How many judgments might be avoided by humbling our-
selves ! How many scandals might be prevented if we would judge our-
selves ! What is the reason so many Christians fall into scandalous sins,
whereby, provoking God's anger, they fall into the hands of their enemies,
but because they spare themselves, and think this humbling themselves a
troublesome action. Therefore to spare themselves, they run on. Be-
cause they would not work this upon themselves, they grow to be in a des-
perate state at last. Wherefore upon any occasion be humble, let us
prepare ourselves to meet the Lord our God. When we hear but any noise
of the judgments of God, we should humble ourselves, as good Josiah did ;
when he did but hear of the threatenings against his land, it made him
humble himself.

Quest. But here it may be demanded, considering that wicked men do
oftentimes humble themselves, being convinced in their consciences, and
thereupon ashamed,

4. How may we hwiv liohj from hypocritical humiliation? which is the
last thing I propounded concerning humiliation, namely, the notes and marks
whereby we may know true humiliation from false, which are these.

Ans. 1. First, Hohj humiliation is toluntarij ; for it is a reflected action,
* In ' Confessions ' repeatedly. — G.

THE ART OF SELF-HUMBLING. 53

which comes from a man's self. It ends where it begins. Therefore Jo siah
is said to humble himself. But, on the contrary, the humiliation of other
men is against their will. False humiliation is not voluntary, but by force
it is extorted from them. God is fain to break, crush, and deal hardly
with them, which they grieve and murmur at. But the children oi Cxod
have the Spirit of God, which is a free Spirit, that sets their hearts at
liberty. For God's Spirit is a working Spirit, that works upon their hearts,
and hereby they willingly humble themselves, whereas the wicked, wanting
this Spirit of God, cannot humble themselves willingly, but are cast down
aaainst their wills. For God can pluck down the proudest He can
break Pharaoh's courage, who, though he was humbled, yet he did not
humble himself. A man may be humbled, and yet not humble. But the
children of God are to humble themselves, not that the grace whereby we
humble ourselves is from ourselves ; but we are said to humble ourselves,
when God doth rule the parts he hath given us, when he sets our wits
and understanding on work to see our misery, and then our will and atiec-
tion to work upon these. Thus we are said to humble ourselves when God
works in us. An hypocrite God may humble and work by him. He may
work by graceless persons, but he doth not work in them. But Gods
children have God's Spirit in them, not only working m- them his own
works, as he doth by hypocrites and sinful persons, but his Spirit works
in them. So that here is the main difference between true humiliation
and that which is counterfeit. The one is voluntary, being a reflected
action, to work upon and to humble ourselves ; but the other is a forced

humiliation. n 4.1

2. Acrain, True humiliation is ever joined uith reformation. Humble tny-
self and walk with thy God, saith the prophet : Micah vi. 8, ' He hath
shewed thee, man, what he doth require of thee, to humble thyselt, and
walk with thy God.' Now the humiliation of wicked men is never jomed
with reformation. There is no walking with God. Josiah reformed him-
self and his people to outward obedience, as much as he could, but he had
not their hearts at command. 1 + i

3. Acrain, Sin must appear bitter to the soul, else we shall never be truly
humbled for it. There is in every renewed soul a secret hatred and loathing
of evil, which manifests the soundness both of true humiliation and relor-
mation, and is expressed in three things. «. . ^ 1 • +1, i f

(1 ) In a serious purpose and resolution not to offend God m tHe least
kind The drunkard must purpose to leave his drunkenness, and the swearer
resolve between God and his own heart, to forsake his base courses, and cry
mightily herein for help from above.

h ) Secondly, There must be a constant endeavour to avoid the occasions
and allurements of sin. Thus Job made a covenant with his eyes, that ' he
would not look upon a maid,' Job xxxi. 1 ; and thus every unclean and
filthy person should make a covenant with themselves against the sms wliicli
they are most addicted unto. When they came to serve God, m Hosea, then
' away with idols,' Hosea. xiv 8. So must we, when we look heavenward,
cast from us all our sins whatsoever. ... f

(3 ) Thirdly, There must be a hatred and loathing of sin m our conles-
sions. We must confess it with all the circumstances, the time when, and
place where. We must aggravate our offences, as David did : ' Against thee
have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight ;' Ps. li. 4 ; and as the apostle :
' I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor,' I was thus and thus. He did

* Qu. ' by ' ?— Ed.

54 THE ART OF SELF-HUMBLING.

not extenuate his sin, and say, the rulers commanded me so to do ; but,
' I persecuted the church' out of the wickedness of mine own heart. A true
Christian will not hide his sins, but lay them open, the more to abase him-
self before God. This aggravating of our sins will make them more vile
unto us, and us more humble in the sight of them. True reformation of
life is ever joined with an indignation of all sin, there is such a contrariety
in the nature of a child of God against all evil.

[1.]* We should therefore first hate sin universally ; not one sin, but
every kind of sin, and that most of all which most rules in us, and which
is most prevalent in our own hearts. A sincere Christian hates sin in
himself most. We must not hate that in another which we cherish in
ourselves.

[2. J We should hate sin the more, the nearer it comes to us, in our children
and friends, or any other way. It was David's fault to let Absalom his son
go unreproved in his wicked practices, and Eli for not correcting his sons.
We see what came of it, even their utter overthrow.

[3.] He that truly hates sin ivill not think much to be admonished and
reproved uhen he errs. A man that hath a bad plant in his ground, that
will eat out the heart of it, will not hate another that shall discover such an
evil to him ; so if any one shall reprove thee for this or that sin, and thou
hate him for it, it is a sign corruption is sweet to thee.

Only this caution must be remembered, reproof must not be given with a
proud spirit, but in a loving, mild manner, with desire of doing good.
There is a great deal of self-love in some men, who, instead of hating sin in
themselves and others, approve and countenance it, especially in great men,
flattering them in their base humours, and fearing lest by telling them the
truth they should be esteemed their enemies.

[4.] Our hatred of sin may be discerned by our willinr/ness to talk of it.
He that hates a snake, or toad, will flee from it ; so a man that truly abhors
sin, will not endure to come near the occasions of it. What shall we say
then of those that prostitute themselves to all sinful delights ? As hatred
of sin is in our affection, so it will appear in our actions. Those that love
to see sin acted did never as yet truly loathe it.

It is a sign that we do not hate sin when we take not to heart the sing
of our land. ' Woe is me that I am constrained to dwell in the tents of
Kedar,' saith David ; * mine eyes gush out with tears because men keep
not thy law/ Ps. cxx. 5. Lot's soul was vexed at the unclean conversation
of the wicked, 2 Peter ii. 7. But, alas ! how do we come short of this !
The greatest number are so far from mourning for the abominations of the
land, that they rather set themselves against God in a most disobedient
manner, and press others to sin against him. Are magistrates of David's
mind, to labour to cut off all workers of iniquity from the land ? Indeed,
for small trifling things they will do a man justice, but where is the tender-
ness of God's glory? Where are those that seek to reform idolatry,
Sabbath- breaking, and profaneness amongst us ? Pity it is to see how
many do hold the stirrup to the devil, by giving occasions and encourage-
ments to others to commit evil. Do we hate sin, when we are like tinder,
ready to receive the least motion to it, as our fashion-mongers, who trans-
form themselves into every effeminate unbeseeming guise ? Shall we say
that these men hate sin, which, when they are reproved for it, labour to
defend it or excuse it, counting their pride but comeliness, their miserable
covetousness but thirst, f and drunkenness only good fellowship ?
* In margin here, ' Signs of a true hatred of sin.' — G. f Q^, ' thrift ' ? — Ed.

THE AKT OF SELF-HUMBLING. 00

To strengthen our indignation against sin the better, consider,
1 The xujUness thereof, how opposite and distasteful it is to the Almighty,
as appears in Sodom and in the old world. It is that for which God himsell
hates his own creature, and for which he will say to the wicked at the day
of judgment, ' Go, ye cursed, into everlasting lire,' Mat. xxv. 41. Sm is the
cause of all those diseases and crosses that befall the sons of men. It hath
its rise from the devil, who is the father of it, and whose lusts we do when-
soever we offend God. . r. •, • i.

There is not the least sin but it is committed against an mhnite majesty,
yea, against a good God, to whom we owe ourselves and all that we have,
who waits when you will turn to him and live for ever ; but if you despise
his goodness, and continue still to provoke the eyes of his glory, is a
terrible and revengeful* God, and ready every moment to destroy both body
and soul in hell. ,

Sin is the bane of all comfort. That which we love more than our souls
undoes us. It embitters every comfort, and makes that we cannot perform
duties with spiritual life. Our very prayers are abominable to God so long
as we Hve in known sin. What makes the hour of death and the day ot
iudgment terrible but this ? ,,.-,,. i • xi.

2 Ac^ain, Grow in the love of God. The more we delight m him, the
more we shall hate whatsoever is contrary to him. In that proportion that
we affect God and his truth we will abhor every evil way, for these go
tocrether. Ye that love the Lord, hate the thing that is ill. The nearer
we draw to him, the farther we are separated from everything beiow.

3. And to strengthen our indignation against sin, we should c^nre our
affections another way, and set them upon the right object. A Christian should
consider. Wherefore did God give me this affection of love ? Was it to set
it on this or that lust, or any sinful course ? Or hath he given me this
affection of hatred that I should envy my brethren, and condemn the good
way ? No, surely. I ought to improve every faculty of my soul to the
dory of the giver, by loving that which he loves, and hating that which he
hates. God's truth, his ways, and children, are objects worthy our love,
and Satan with his deeds of darkness the fittest subjects of our indignation

and hatred. ^ . , -, ■ ■ .i c •^\.r,.^

4 Fourthly, True humiliation proceeds from faith, and is m the taithtul
not only when judgment is upon them, but before the judgment comes,
which they foreseeing by faith, do humble themselves. True humiliation
quakes at the threatenings, for the very frowns of a father will terriiy a
dutiful child. As Josiah, when he did but hear of the threatenings against
the land, he humbled himself in dust and ashes. ' He rent his clothes
So true humiliation doth quake at the foresight of judgment, but the wicked
never humble themselves but when the judgment is upon them. Carnal
people are like men that, hearing thunder-claps afar off, are never a whit
moved ; but when it is present over their heads, then they tremble, bo
hypocrites care not for judgments afar off; as now when the church ot God
is in misery abroad we bless ourselves, and think all is well. It is no thanKs
for a man to be humbled when the judgment is upon him, for so Pharaon
was, who yet, when the judgment was off, then he goes to his old bias

^°Let us try our humiliation by these signs, whether we can willingly

humble ourselves privately before God, and call ourselves to a reckomng;

whether we add reformation of life to outward humiliation, when our heart

* That is, = ' avenging.' — G.

THE ART OF SELF-HUMBLING.

doth tell US that we live in such and such sins ; whether our hearts tremble
at the threatenings, when we hear of judgments public or private. What
is the ground that may deceive themselves ? They say, if any judgment
come upon them, then they will repent, and cry to God for mercy ; and
why should I deny myself of my pleasures of sin before ? Oh, this is but
a forced humiliation, not from love to God, but love to thyself. It is not
free, therefore thou mayest go to hell with it. Others defer off their
repentance till it be too late. When they have any sickness upon them
they will cry to God for mercy. This is but Ahab's and Pharaoh's humili-
ation. It is not out of any love to God, but merely forced. It is too late
to do it when God hath seized upon us by any judgment. Do it when he
doth threaten, and now he hath seized upon the parts of the church abroad
already ; therefore now meet thy God by repentance.

5. A fifth difference between true humiliation and false is, that with tru«
liumiliaiion is joined lioj^e, to raise up our souls with some comfort, else
it is a desperation, not a humiliation. The devils do chafe, vex, and fret
themselves, in regard of their desperate estate, because they have no hope.
If there be no hope, it is impossible there should be true and sound humi-
liation ; but true humiliation doth carry us to God, that what we have
taken out of ourselves by humiliation, we may recover it in God. There-
fore humility is such a grace, that though it make us nothing in ourselves,
yet doth it carry us to God, who is all in all. Humiliation works between
God and ourselves, and makes the heart leave itself, to plant and pitch
itself upon God, and looks for comfort and assurance from him. And
where there is not this there is no true humiliation. There is nothing
more profitable in the world than humility, because, though it seem to have
nothing, yet it carrieth the soul to him that fills all in all. Hence it is,
that there is an abasing of ourselves for anj^thing that we have 'done amiss,
from love to God and love to his people, but yet it is joined with hope. We
know God to be a gracious God unto us, and therefore we humble our-
selves, and are grieved for offending of him.

6. A sixth difference between true humihation and false is this, That
hypocrites are sorroirful for the judgment that is irpon them ; hut not for that
which is the cause of the j}idgment, which is sin ; but the child of God, he
is humbled for sin, which is the cause of all judgments. As good Josiah,
when he heard read out of Deuteronomy the curses threatened for sin, and
comparing the sins of his people with the sins against which the curses
were threatened, he humbled himself for his sin and the sins of his people.
For God's children know, if there were no iniquity in them, there should
no adversity hurt them ; and therefore they run to the cause, and are
humbled for that. Whereas the wicked, they humble themselves only
because of the smart and trouble which they do endure.

7. The last difference between true humiliation and false is this, that
true humiliation is a tJiorough humiliation. Therefore it is twice repeated
in this verse, ' thou didst humble thyself before God ; ' when thou heardest
the words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, ' and
humbledst thyself before me.' It is twice repeated in this verse, and after-
ward expressed by ' rending of clothes,' and * tears.' It was thorough
humiliation. For he dwelt upon the humbling of his own soul. So that
the children of God thoroughly humble themselves, but the hypocrite, when
he doth humble himself, it is not thoroughly. They count it a light matter.
As soon as the judgment is off, they have forgotten their humiliation, as
Pharaoh did. Many will heave a few sighs, and hang down the head like

THE ART OF SELF-nUMBLING.

a bulrush for a time ; but it is, like Ephraim's morning dew, quickly gone.
They have no sound and thorough humiliation. It is but a mere offer of
humihation. Whereas the children of God, when they begin, they never
cease working upon their own hearts with meditation, until they have
brought their heart to a blessed temper, as we see in David, Ezra, Nehe-
miah, and Daniel, how they did humble themselves.

But why do God's children take pains in humbling themselves ?

Partly because it must be done to purpose, else God will not accept it ;
and partly because there is a great deal of hardness and pride in the best,
and much ado before a man can be brought for to humble himself. There-
fore we must labour for this. We see what ado there was before Job
could be brought to humble himself. Yet Job must be humbled before
there comes * one of a thousand' to comfort him, as Job xxxiii. 23. If a
man be once thoroughly and truly humbled, he shall soon have comfort.
By these marks we may know true humiliation from an humiliation coun-
terfeit.

Quest. But here may arise another question, How may we know when
we are humbled enough, or when we are grieved enough ?

Ans. To this I answer, 1. That there is not the same measure of humilia-
tion required in all. For those whom God did pick out for some great
work, he doth more humble them than others, as he did Moses and Paul
before he wrought the great work of converting the Gentiles. So David,
before he came to be king, was a long time humbled.

2. Again, There are others that have been greater sinners, and 7nore openhj
wicked in their courses than others, and in them a greater measure of humi-
liation is required.

3. Again, There are others that are more tenderly hrour/ht np from child-
hood, who have often renewed their repentance. These need not to be
humbled so much as others ; for humiliation should be proportionable unto
the sinful estate of the soul ; which because it difiers in divers men, in like
manner their humiliation ought to differ. But to answer the question
more directly, we are said to be humbled enough,

1. First, When tre hare urovght our souls to a hearty grief that ire hare
offended God, when we have a perfect and inward hatred of all sin, and
when thou dost shew the truth of thy grief by leaving off thy sinful courses.
So that, dost thou hate and leave thy sinful course ? Then thou art suffi-
ciently humbled. Go away with peace and comfort, thy sins are forgiven
thee. Therefore it is not a slight humiliation that will serve the turn, but
our hearts must be wrought unto a perfect hatred and leaving of all sins ;
for if this be not, we are not sufficiently humbled as yet. And when we
find ourselves to hate and leave sin in some measure, then fasten our souls
by faith, as much as may be, upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. For
the soul hath two eyes, the one to look upon itself and our vileness, to
humble us the more ; the other, to fasten upon the mercy of God in Christ,
to raise up our souls. For if the whole soul were fastened upon its own
misery and vileness, then there could not be that humiliation which ought
to be, neither could we serve God with such cheerfulness ; therefore we
must have our souls raised up to God's mercy. Now let us labour for the
first, because the devil is so main an enemy unto it ; for he knows well
enough, that so much as we are humble and go out of ourselves to God,
and rest upon him, so much we stand impregnable against his temptations,
that he cannot prevail against us ; and so much as we do not trust in
God, but upon the creature, so much must we lie open to his snares.

58 THE ART OF SELF-HUMBLING.

Therefore all his temptations tend to draw us to trust in the creature, to
have a conceit of ourselves, and to draw our hearts from relying upon God.
His first plot is always to make us rest in ourselves. Therefore let us
labour to go out of ourselves, to see a vanity in ourselves, and a happiness
in God, that so going out of ourselves, and relying upon God and his
mercies, we may stand safe against Satan's temptations.

Use. This should teach us to take heed of such affections as tend directly
contrary to humiliation ; for how can it be but that those should be proud,
that hold the doctrine of the Church of Rome, as, first, that we have no
original sin in us, but it is taken away by baptism ; that we are able to fulfil
the law fully in this life. This is presumptuous. Whereas Paul cries out
after baptism, ' wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of death ! ' Rom, vii. 24. Nay, they can do more, namely, works of
supererogation, whereby they merit heaven. How do these blow up the
heart of man, and make it swell with pride ! This must needs make men
very proud, to think that a man can merit by works. With such blasphe-
mous opinions they have infected the world, and led captive millions of
souls into hell. Therefore let this be a rule of discerning true religion ;
for surely that is true religion which doth make us go out of ourselves ;
that takes away all from ourselves and gives all the glory to God ; which
makes us to plead for salvation by the mercy of God through the merits of
Christ. But our religion doth teach us thus. Therefore it is the true re-
ligion, and will yield us sound comfort at the last. Thus much for inward
humiliation, the humbhng of ourselves, as Josiah did.

THE ART OF MOURNING.

SERMON III.

But because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God,
when thou heardest his words against this jilace, and against the inhabitants
thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and
weep before me ; I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord. — 2 Chron.
XXXlV. 27.

As the waters issuing from the sanctuary, mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel,
grew deeper and deeper; first to the ancles, then to the knees, and after to
the loins, until it came to an overflowing river, so hath it fared with us in
handling of this text; wherein, from tenderness of heart, we have waded
deeper and deeper through the mysteries of humiliation in the inward man,
until at length from thence we are broken forth to the outward expressions
of Josiah's inward humiliation, his ' rending of his clothes,' and overflow-
ing floods of ' tears ;' which sprung partly from his apprehension of rum
at hand, to come upon God's sanctuary, and partly from the sorrow and
sense of sin in himself and the people, as causes of his fear.

But to come to the text now read in your hearing, ' And didst rend thy
clothes, and weep before me,' here we have set down the outward expres-
sion of Josiah's inward humiliation.

For true humiliation shews itself as well outwardly as inwardly. _ Now,
the outward expression of his inward affection is set down in two things :

1. By rending of his clothes ; 2. By his weeping.

No doubt but he did express his sorrow as well by words as by these
gestures, although they be not here set down with the other ; for he might
for the time be surprised with so great a measure of sorrow and grief, as
could not be expressed presently at that instant, or we may conceive that
for the time he was so thoroughly humbled, that he could not speak orderly.
Wherefore God did regard and look more to his aflections and tears than
to his words, for he rent his clothes and wept before God. As it is written
of the poor publican, that he could not say much, and looked down with
his eyes, saying, ' Lord, be merciful to me a sinner,' Luke xviii. 13 ; and
as it was with the poor woman in the gospel who came to Christ weeping,
and washed his feet with her tears, yet she said nothing, Luke vii. 38 ;
and as when Christ, upon the cock's third crowing, looked upon Peter, we

THE ART OF MOURNING,

find not what he said, but that he went out and wept bitterly, Luke xxii.
61, 62 ; so here, we may imagine Josiah's affection was too full of sorrow
to speak distinctly and composedly ; for from a troubled soul can proceed
nothing but troubled words ; from a broken heart comes broken language.
But howsoever, likely it is that Josiah did speak somewhat ; for God saith,
' I have even also heard thee.' But to leave this and come to the outward
expressions here set down, let us learn somewhat from his rending of his
clothes and weeping.

* Rending of clothes' was a thing frequently used in old times, as we see
in the Scriptures ; and it was a visible representation of the inward sorrow
of the heart. Job rent his clothes, Job i. 20 ; his friends rent their clothes,
Job ii. 12 ; Paul and Barnabas rent theirs. Acts xiv. 14 ; the high priest
rent his clothes, being to accuse Christ, Mark xiv. 63 ; and Hezekiah rent
his clothes when he heard the words of Rabshakeh, Isa. xxxvii. 1. Nay,
this was a common action, and frequently used among the heathen also ;
for they likewise, upon any disastrous accident, were used to rend their
clothes ; as we read of a heathen king, that having his city invaded
round about with enemies, rent his clothes.* So that it hath been the
custom both of God's church and also of heathen, to rend their clothes.
But what is the ground or reason of this ? The reason of such their rend-
ing of clothes was, because that in their sorrow they thought themselves
unworthy to wear any. They forgat all the comforts of this life ; as holy
Josiah forgets his estate, his throne, his royal majesty, and crown. He
looks up to the great God, and considers duly whom he stood under, and
the miserable estate of the people, over whom he was governor ; and there-
upon he rends his clothes, shewing hereby that he was unworthy of those
ornaments wherewith he was covered. We know that clothes have divers
uses ; as,

1. First, For necessity, to cover our nakedness, and to preserve from the
injuries of the weather.

2. Secondly, Clothes are given for distinction of sexes and degrees: to know
the great man from the mean, the woman from the man.

3. And lastly. They serve for ornaments to honour our vile flesh, which is
so base that it must fetch ornaments from base creatures. Now, so far as
they served for ornaments, he rent his clothes, as thinking himself unworthy
of any garments ; for he being in grief doth rend his clothes, thinking with
himself, why should I stand upon clothes and outward things to cover me ?
God is angry. Till he be appeased I will take no pleasure in any earthly
thing. Therefore, apprehending the wrath of God, he rent his clothes.
Well, this is but an outward expression, and therefore it must proceed from
inward truth. This rending of clothes was a national ceremony, which
seeing we have not used amongst us, we must rend our hearts with grief.
For the rending of clothes shews the rending of the heart before, without
which there is no acceptance with God ; for the rending of the clothes
without the rending of the heart is but hypocrisy ; as Joel ii. 13, he says,
' Rend your hearts, and not your garments, ye hypocrites.' So that out-
ward expressions of sorrow are no further good, than when they come from
inward grief and aifection. Now, when both these are joined together it is
a comely thing ; for wherein stands comeliness but when all the parts of
our body do agree in proportion, when one hmb is not bigger than another?
So it is uncomely and an hypocritical thing for a man to have all outward

* Query, Is this an allusion to the Sultan — the 'raging Turk' of the Puritans —
in his anguish at the siege of Scodra? Cf. among others Trapp on Ezra ix. 3. — G,

THE ART OF MOURNING. 61

expression and yet to have no inward grief. Tiiis is but acting of humilia-
tion, when we hang down the head like a bulrush, and the heart is not sound.
But outward expressions are good when the heart is grieved to purpose ;
when they proceed from inward humiliation.

Quest. And why ought this to be ?

Ans. Because both body and soul have a part in the action of sin.
Therefore it is needful that they should be joined in humiliation for sin.
There is no sin of the body but the soul hath part in it, nor any sin in the
soul but the body hath part in it. Therefore both body and soul should
be humbled together. Labour then to have outward expressions and shows
of sorrow come from a true sorrowful heart. There be two things in the
religious actions of men.

1. There is the outward action or expression.

2. There is the inward, which gives life to the other.

The outward is easy, and subject to hypocrisy. It is an easy matter to
rend clothes and to force tears, but it is a hard matter to afflict the soul.
The heart of man taketh the easiest ways, and lets the hardest alone,
thinking to please God with that. But God will not be served so ; for he
must have the inward aftections, or else he doth abhor the outward actions.
Therefore let us as well labour for humble hearts as humble gestures. We
must rend our hearts and not our clothes, when we come into the presence
of God. We must labour, as to shew humility, so to have humility, that so
we be not like hypocrites, who make show of a great deal of devotion in
carriage, but yet have none in heart ; a great deal of outward humiliation,
whenas they have none within.

The papists are wicked and erroneous in all their devotions, especially in
the point of justification, and in other points of the worship of God ; for is
it not a superstitious error, to think to please God with outward observations,
when they do not come from inward truth ? Their religion is all an outside,
consisting merely of outward performances. But true devotion, the Scrip-
ture teacheth, cometh from a heart judicially understanding the case of its
own self ; considering what a great God it hath to deal withal, a God full
of glory and majesty. Doth God love blind sacrifices ? No. Devotion
must come from the heart, and spread itself from thence into the counte-
nance and carriage. For then it is true, when the outward expression doth
shew the inward disposition.

Use. This reproves the negligence of people in these times. Where is their
inward humiliation ? Nay, where is their outward humiliation ? In popery,
there is an acting of humiliation. They whip themselves in their bodies,
and other such outward fooleries and gestures they have in their hypocri-
tical devotions. Thus do they in some sort humble themselves. But how
few are there amongst us that humble themselves in apprehension of their
own misery, who yet, if they look to their own persons, have cause enough !
Yea, and how few are there that are humbled for the miseries of the church
abroad ! Where shall we find a mourning soul ?

Well, seeing it is not a custom amongst us to rend our clothes, yet let
us make conscience of being proud in apparel ; for it is a wicked and a
fearful thing when men will regard some wicked and foolish fashion, and
set more by it than by God's favour, threatenings, and judgments abroad.
Many there are that, instead of rending their clothes, come into God's
house to shew their bravery ; to see and to be seen. Where they should
most of all humble themselves, there they come to shew their pride, even
before God. Whereas they should come to hear the voice of the great God

62 THE ART OF MOURNING.

of heaven, and stand in his presence, who is a * consuming fire.' Before
whom the very angels cover their faces and the earth trembles, they, contrari-
wise, come to outface and provoke him with their pride. We see Josiah,
though he were a king, he rent his clothes, forgot all his bravery, and
considers himself not so much a king over the people, over whom God had
Bet him, as a subject to God. Wherefore, though, as I said, the custom of
rending of clothes be not used in our church, yet let us ever make con-
science of rending our hearts, and so to make our peace with God, as this
good king did. It follows ; —

' And weptest before me.'

In which words is set down the second outward expression of Josialis
inward humiliation, which is * weeping.' This came nearer to him than rend-
ing of clothes, for it touched his body. Hence, in a word, observe,

Doct. 1. That the body and soid must join together in the action of humilia-
tion, for the soul and body go together in the acting of sin, therefore they
must go together in humiliation. As they were both made by God, and
redeemed by Christ, so they sin and practise good together. Now I will
shew three ways wherein the soul and body have communion one with
another, whereby it may appear how reasonable and fitting a thing it is
they should be both humbled together.

1. First, The soul and body have communion together by way of impres-
sion or information ; for sensible things have an impression upon the senses,
and so come into the soul ; for nothing comes into it but through the
senses of the body ; because, though the soul may imagine golden moun-
tains, and things that it never saw, yet the working of the soul depends
upon the body, for the body informs it of all outward objects. As the
body is beholding to the soul for the ruling and guiding of it, so the soul
is beholding to the body for many things ; as now in the very sacrament,
God helps the soul with the senses ; Christ, as it were, in the sacrament
enters through the senses more lively than in the preaching of the word,
for there he enters in by the ears, but in the sacrament he is seen, tasted,
handled, felt. So that the soul and body have communion together by way
of information.

2. Secondly, The soul and body have communion together by way of
temptation ; for the soul standing in need of many outward things which
are pleasing and delightful, and having sympathy with the body, it is led
away by the body. Outward objects are pleasing to the senses of carnal
men. Now these passing through the senses into the soul, it is led away,
and so they become a dangerous temptation.

3. Thirdly, The soul and the body have communion together, both in
sinful and in good actions, by iray of subjection or execution ; for God hath
made the body, with the parts thereof, to be the instruments and weapons
of the soul. The body is a house wherein the soul is kept. It is a shop
for the soul. Now the soul useth the body, with the members thereof, as
instruments or weapons, either to honour God or dishonour him. The
wicked fight against God with all the members of their body, with their
eyes, tongue, feet, hands. Now the body having thus a part in sin, as
well as the soul, therefore it is necessary that the body and soul should
join together in humiliation.

Caution. Here we must take heed of a notable sleight of the devil in
popery. The papists think the body only in fault for sin, and therefore
they humble and afllict their bodies for it, while they pufi" up their soul

THE AET OF MOURNING. 68

with pride, a conceit of merit and satisfaction. Tliey are falsely humble
and truly proud, while they afflict the body and omit the soul. They are
falsely humbled, because they humble their body only ; but truly proud,
because they think by afflicting and humbling their bodies to merit. But
let us take heed of this gross error, and remember to let both soul and
body join in the work.

Doct. 2. The second thing here to be noted is, that ivhen God ivill afflict
or humble a man, it is not a kingdom that ivill save him. As Josiah, though
he were a monarch, — for he was an absolute monarch, — yet if God threaten,
his kingdom can do him no good. If God will abase men, whether they
be his children or enemies, it is not a kingdom can protect them. When
God shewed Belshazzar the handwriting upon the wall, he could take no
comfort in anything, Dan. v. 5 ; yea, his dear children, if he shew but
tokens of his displeasure against them, though they be kings, as Josiah was,
yet he can humble them. If God roar, it is not their greatness can keep
them ; if not now, yet he will make them to tremble hereafter.

Doct. 3. The third thing here that we learn from the example of Josiah,
being a king, is, T/iat tears and mounting for sin, when it comes from inward
grief, is a temper u-ell befitting any man. It is a carriage befitting a king.
It is not unbeseeming any, of what sex or degree soever. It is no womanish
or base thing. When one hath to deal with God, he must forget his estate
and take the best way to meet with God. This is evident by many instances,
for David, though a man of war, yet when he had to deal with God he
watered his couch with his tears, Ps. vi. 6. So Hezekiah, though a great
king, yet he humbled himself, Isa. xxxviii. 1, seq. Nay, our blessed
Saviour himself did it * with strong cries and tears,' Heb. v. 7, when he
had to deal with God.

Use. This serves for the justification of this holy abasement and humbling
of ourselves. When we have to deal with God, then all abasement is little
enough. ' I will be yet more vile than thus,' saith holy David, 2 Sam.
vi. 22. So let us say when we have to deal with God ; I will be yet more
vile, and so cast ourselves down before the Lord. AH expression of devo-
tion is little enough, so it be without hypocrisy. Yet I pray give me leave
once again to give warning unto you concerning outward actions, for most
have conceived wrong of devotion and humiliation. They think that devo-
tion is only in outward actions ; as in outward act to hear a little, to read,
confer, or pray a little, whereas in truth these outward acts do only make
up the body of devotion, which, without the soul, namely, the inward reli-
gious affection, looking unto God, is no better than a dead carrion. Our
outward expression must come from the apprehension of the goodness,
mercy, and justice of God, before whom the very angels veil their faces.
It is not outward devotion that will serve the turn, as to come to the church
with this bare conceit and forethought ; I will go pray, and kneel, and
express all outward carriage, in the meantime neglecting to stir up the soul
to worship God with these or like thoughts ; I will go to the place where
God is, where his truth is, where his angels are, to hear that word whereby
I shall be judged at the last day. Therefore let all holy actions come from
within first, and thence to the outward man. Let us work upon our hearts
a consideration of the goodness, justice, majesty, and mercy of God, and
then let there be an expression in body, such as may bring men off from
their sins ; for else there is a spirit of superstition that will draw men far
from God in seeming services, conceiving that God will accept of outward
and formal expressions only. Well, we see that weeping and mourning

64 THE ART OF MOURNING.

for sins is a carriage not unbeseeming for a king. Therefore it is a
desperate madness not to humble ourselves and be abased, now we have to
deal with God. Your desperate atheists of the world will not tremble at
threatenings, nor humble themselves till death comes, which humbles them
and makes them tremble ; whereas, on the contrary, that soul which, feeling
the wrath of God, humbles itself betimes, and trembles at threatenings,
that soul, I say, — when the great judgment of death comes, and appearance
before God, — looks death in the face with comfort ; whereas your desperate
atheists, that can now scorn God, swear at every word, and blaspheme
God to his face ; let God but shew his displeasure, they tremble and quake
upon any noise of fear. Therefore when we have to deal with God, it is
wisdom, and the ground of all courage, to humble and abase ourselves with
fear, as Josiah did although he were a king.

' And thou didst weep before me.'

His tender heart did melt itself into tears. In the first clause of the
verse you have his tender heart set down, and here we have the melting of
the tender heart. There we have the cloud, here we have the shower.
Therefore I will speak something of the original of tears. We know that
tears are strained from the inward parts, through the eyes ; for the under-
standing first conceiveth cause of grief upon the heart, after which the heart
sends up matter of grief to the brain, and the brain being of a cold nature,
doth distil it down into tears ; so that if the grief be sharp and piercing,
there will follow tears after from most. But to come to the particulars ;
we see the provoking cause of tears, from without, in Josiah, was the danger
of his kingdom, hearing the judgment of God threatened against his country
and place. "Whence, for the instruction of magistrates, I will enforce this
point.

Doct. 4. That it concerns magistrates above all others, to take to heart any
danger whatsoever, that is upon their people ; for as kings are set above all
other people in place, so they should be above them in goodness and grace.
They ought, above all others, to take to heart any judgment, either upon
them already, or feared ; as good Josiah did, whom, while he looked not
so much to himself and his own good, as to that state whereof he was king,
the very threatenings of judgment against it, made to express his grief with
tears. The bond that knits the king to the people, and the people to the
king, requires this ; for kings are heads, and shepherds over the people.
Now the shepherd watcheth over his flock ; the head is quickly sensible of
any hurt of the body ; all the senses are provident for the body. So it
should be with all great persons in authority. They should cherish the
good estate of the subjects as their own ; for thej' are committed to their
care. And even as the head doth care for the body, and forecast for it, so
those that are in authority should forecast for any good to the body of the
commonwealth. An excellent example of this we have in holy David ; who,
when there was a judgment coming upon his people. Lord, saith he, let
the judgment come upon me and my father's house ; what have these sheep
done?' 2 Sam. xxiv. 17. And surely such magistrates as are tenderly
affected with the case of those under them, shall lose nothing by it ; for
the people likewise will carry a tender affection towards them again. As
we see, when the people went to fight against Absalom, they would not let
David go with them, but they said to him, ' Thou art worth ten thousand
of us,' 2 Sam. xviii. 3 ; that is, they had rather that ten thousand of them
should die in the battle, than that David should have any hurt come to

THE ART OF MOURNING. 65

him ; so he lost nothing foi' his love and affection towards the people, for
they shewed the like love to him in his distress. So likewise when Josiah
was dead, the people wept largely for him (for with him perished all the
glory of that flourishing kingdom), as we may read in the story, 2 Chron.
XXXV. 24, 25, compared with Zech. xii. 11. They mom-ned for him with
an exceeding great mourning, in Hadadrimmon, in the valley of Megiddo.
So that there is no love lost between the magistrate and the people ; for
if the magistrate be tenderly affected to them, the people will likewise
weep for him again, and lament his case in his distress. But now to
come to a more general instruction, we will leave speaking of Josiah as
king, and take him into consideration as an holy man, and make him a
pattern unto us all, of whatsoever civil condition we be ; and so we learn
this point,

Doct. 5. That it is the duty of every Christian to take to heart the threaten-
ings of God against the place and pieople where he doth Jive ; to take to heart
the afflictions and miseries of the church and commonwealth, the grievances
of others as well as his own. The mourning and weeping of Josiah was
for the estate of the church, when he heard the judgment threatened against
the place and inhabitants thereof. There be tears of compassion for our-
selves and for others. There were both of them in Josiah ; for no doubt
but he wept for himself and his own sins, and over and above his own had
special tears of compassion for his people. Thus then it becomes a Chris-
tian that will have the reward of Josiah, to abase his heart as he did for
the estate of the church. Good Nehemiah took to heart the grief of his
country. The joy of his own preferment did not so much glad him, as
the grief for his nation the Jews cast him down. What joy can a true
heart have, now the church of God is in affliction ? We are all of one
house. When one part of the house is a-fire, the other part had need to
look to itself. There were many things wrought upon the heart of Josiah,
which caused him to weep ; so there are many causes should move us, as
the seeing of the sins that are committed in the land ought to make us
grieve, and to express our grief one way or other. And the love of Christ,
were it in us, would make us mourn ; as when we hear God blasphemed,
and his name dishonoured, and when we see the people bent to idolatry ;
how can this but break even a heart of stone, nay, a gracious heart will
mourn and weep for the judgment of God upon wicked men, considering
them as men, and as the creatures of God. Thus Christ wept for the
wicked Jews in Jerusalem, though they were his enemies : ' Jerusalem,
Jerusalem,' &c., Luke xix. 41 ; and so good Jeremiah, though he were ill
used, and exceedingly abused by the people, yet he saith, * Oh that my head
were water, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and
night for them,' Jer. ix. 1. Though they had wronged, persecuted, and
counted him a contentious fellow, only because he taught the truth of God ;
yet such was the affection of tender-hearted Jeremiah, that he desired that
be might weep day and night for them. But continual weeping must have
a lasting spring affording continual issues of tears, which Jeremiah not find-
ing in himself (such is the dryness of every man's heart, that it is soon
emptied of tears), and thereupon fearing he should not weep enough, he
doth earnestly desire it, and if hearty wishes may obtain, he would have it
to be supplied with a plentiful measure of tears in his lamentation for the
ensuing calamity of his people : ' that mine head were a well of water,
and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the
slain of the daughter of my people ! '

VOL. VI. E

6G THE ART OF MOURNING.

Quest. But why did not Jeremiah rather pray that they had a fountain of
tears to weep for themselves ?

Aus. Because he, knowing the hardness of their hearts, thought it to no
end to entreat them to weep for themselves. Their hearts were harder
than the nether millstone. They never desired it, yet he weeps for them.
Thus we see how godly men have been formerly affected, and [that] it is
our duty even to weep and mourn for the very wicked. We have matter
enough of lamentation and weepings at this day, if we look abroad ; and
at home, if we look to judgments felt and feared, we have cause to weep,
before the decree come out against us. Therefore we should meet God
beforehand. It is no thank for a man to be humbled when the judgment
is come upon him ; but when we can weep before the judgment is come, it
is a sign of faith. Happy were we if faith could make us do that which
sense makes wicked men to do. If the believing of the judgment before
it come would make us seek unto God, Oh how God would love such a
one ! This should teach us every one to mourn ; and indeed a Christian
soul cannot but do it, and that for divers reasons.

1. First, Because of that si/m})athi/ between the Head and the members. A
Christian hath the spirit of Christ, who takes to heart the miseries of the
church. Now, can that spirit of Christ be in any, and he not affected as
Christ in heaven is affected ? Surely no.

2. Again, It must needs be so in rer/ard of the cojnmunion ivhich is between
the members of the body. "We are all a part of one mystical body, whereof
Christ is the head. What member can he be of this body that doth not
take to heart the miseries of the other members ? There is want of life
where there is no sense of misery.

3. Thirdly, Where there is true grace there will be weeping and mourn-
ing for the church, in regard of the insolencij of the church's enemies and their
blasphemous speeches. Where is now their God ? their religion ?
What is now become of their Eeformation ? What child can hear the
reproach and dishonour of God his Father without bowels of compassion ?

4. Again, A gracious man will weep in regard of the danger of not mourn-
ing ; for by not mourning we have a kind of guilt lying upon us, for we
make the sins and miseries of the church our own, as Paul tells the Corin-
thians, reproving them for not mourning, 1 Cor. v. 2. Therefore as we
are a part of the body, so we must have a part of the shame and grief.
Again, God hath promised to mark and single out all those that mourn for
the sins of the time ; therefore, on the contrary, those that do not mourn
are in a dangei'ous estate, Ezek. ix. 4.

5. Again, We must add reformation unto lamentation, else the whole
church and commonwealth is in danger. If Achan be not sought out and
punished, the whole state is in danger, and lies open to the wrath of God,

For these reasons we ought to take to heart the sins and miseries of the
times ; for the Spirit of God is in every Christian, that will not suffer him
otherwise to be, than to weep and mourn for his own sins, and for the sins
and miseries of others.

Use 1. If this be so, what will become of those that take not to heart nor
mourn for the miseries of the church ? that judge not aright of the poor,
but censure the judgment of the afflicted, add affliction to the afflicted and
misery to the miserable ? What shall we say to those that are so far from
helping God, that they help the enemies of God, and are grieved at the
heart to hear any cause of comfort on the church's part ? whose hearts it
doth joy to hear of any overthrow on the church's side ? Such false hearts

THE AET OF MOXJENING. 67

there are, and many that are glad of the sins of others, thinking thereby
to hide their own wicked courses. These men are far from mourning.
Let our souls also be far from entering into their secrets.

Use 2. If this be so, that holy men ought to take to heart and weep for
the judgments of the commonwealth, both felt and feared, and also for the
judgment of God upon the churches abroad, then

Quest. How may we get this weeping and mourning for others ? I
answer,

Ans. 1. First, Bemove the impediments that hinder ; as, first, a hard and
stony heart, which is opposite to tenderness. Josiah had a melting heart,
and therefore it was soon dissolved into tears. Our hearts are worse than
brass or stone, for workmen can work upon them ; but nothing will work
upon the hard heart of man. All the judgments in the world will not work
upon it ; for all the Israelites saw the judgments of God in Egypt, and all
his mercies and blessings unto them in the wilderness, yet it would not
• work upon them, because they had hard hearts. Therefore let us get a
good spring of tears, that is, a soft and tender heart, and let us beg it of
God, for it is his promise to give us tender hearts ; and then there will be
an easy expression of it in the outward man.

2. The second. Let us beware of the love of earthly things, and get a heart
truly loving towards God ; for love is compared to fire ; and fire, among
many other properties it hath, melts the gold, and makes it pliable. Heat
is the organ of the soul, whereby it doth anything, and the instrument of
nature. So spiritual heat, a warm soul, warmed with the love of God and
of our Christian brethren, will make the heart pliable, and melt into tears.
Therefore get a loving heart, filled with love to God and Christian brethren,
that we may mortify self-love, which dries up the soul. There can be no
melting in such a self-loved soul. Let us therefore labour for spiritual
love, to cross and subdue carnal self-love. It is this blessed heat that
must send forth this heavenly water of tears ; it is the spirit of love that
must yield this distillation from the broken heart ; this works all heavenly
affection in us. Therefore Christ compriseth all the commandments under
love. And indeed that is all.

3. Thirdly, If we would have our souls fit to grieve, let us be content to
see as much as we can, with our own eyes, the miseries of others. The best
way to weep is to enter into the house of mourning, and set before our
eyes the afflictions of others. The very sight of misery is a means to
make the soul weep. And let us be willing to hear that which we cannot
see ; as Nehemiah was content to hear, nay, to inquire, concerning the
church abroad ; and when he heard that it was not well with them, it
made him weep. Every man will cry, What news ? But where is the
man, when he hears of the news beyond the seas, that sends up sighs to
God ? prayer, that he would take pity upon his church ? It is a good way
to use our senses, to help our souls to grieve.

4. Again, Let us read [of] the estate of God's church, what it hath been
from the beginning of the world ; what miseries God's children have en-
dured in former ages by reason of war and the Hke, that so we may work
grief upon our own hearts. We have always matter of grief while we are
in this world ; if we look abroad, we shall find matter of mourning. And
surely we should labour to mourn if we desire to be blessed. For * blessed
are they that mourn : they shall be comforted,' Mat. v. 4.

5. Fifthly, That we may get this weeping and mourning, let us ivork this
tender affection jipon our own hearts. The soul hath a facutly to work upon

68 THE AKT OF MOURNING.

itself. Therefore let us shame ourselves for our own deadness, dryness,
and spiritual barrenness this way, that we can yield no sighs, no tears for
God, for his church and glory. Let us reason thus with our souls : If I
should lose my wife, or child, or my estate, this naughty heart of mine
would weep and be grieved ; but now there is greater cause of mourning
for myself and the church of God, and yet I cannot grieve. Augustine
eaith he could weep for her that killed herself out of love to him, but he
could not weep for his own want of love to God.* We have many that
will weep for the loss of friends, wealth, and such like things, but let them
lose God's favour, be in such an estate there is but one step between them
and hell, they are never grieved nor moved at it. Therefore, seeing they
do not weep for themselves, let us weep for them. Can we weep when we
see a man hurt in his body, and ought we not much more for the danger
of his soul ? Therefore let us work this sorrow upon our hearts. Now,
we are to receive the sacrament, which is a feast, and therefore must be
eaten cheerfully. The passover was a banquet, and therefore to be eaten
with joy, but withal it was used to be eaten with sour herbs. So must it be
in this blessed banquet which God hath provided for our souls. There
must be sorrow as well as joy. It is a mixed action, and therefore it must
be eaten with sour herbs, presenting to the eyes of our mind the object of
the old Adam ; thinking upon the vileness of our nature, that have such
filthy speeches, disobedient actions, such rebellious thoughts in us. Great
need have I of the mercy and favour of God to look upon such a defiled soul
as I am. And also, having in the eyes of our soul Christ crucified, look
upon Christ, which is crucified in the sacrament, sacramentally. What was
that which broke the body of Christ ? Was it not sin ? That sin which I so
often cherish, this pride, this envy, unbelief, and hypocrisy, this covetous-
ness of mind was that which put Christ into such torment. It was not the
nails, but my sins. The sacrament must work upon our hearts so as to
work grief in us. We must weep as the people did for Josiah, according
as God hath promised we should do. It is said, Zech. xii. 10, ■■■ They shall
look on him whom they have pierced by their sins, and weep and mourn
for him as one that mourneth for his only son.' So then, the sacrament is
not only a matter of joy and thanks, but a matter of sorrow. Therefore, if
we would joy in the sacrament, let us first be humbled for sin, and then joy
in it afterwards.

OhJ. But here it might be objected. Are we not bid for to rejoice always ?
and always to be thankful? 1 Thes. v. 16. Then how can these agree ?
for weeping and mourning are contrary to thanksgiving and joy.

Ans. To this I answer, that the estate of a Christian in this life is a
mixed estate, both inward and outward ; his outward estate and the inward
disposition of the soul is mixed. Therefore, having this mixed estate, our
carriage must [be] answerable ; as we have always cause of mourning and
rejoicing both from that in us and from without us, therefore a Christian
ought to rejoice always, and in some measure to mourn always. As, for
example,

A Christian hath cause of mourning within him when he looks upon his
sinful nature and the sins which he doth daily commit, yet notwithstanding,
at the same time, there is cause of joy, and great reason to bless God, when
he considers that God hath pardoned his sins in Christ. Thus the apostle
did, Rom. vii. 24 ; when he looked upon himself and his own vileness, he
cries out, * wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
* Augustine on the death of his mother Monica. — G.

THE ABT OF MOURNING. 69

body of death ! ' yet for all this, at the same time he rejoiceth and blesseth
God : * I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord, who hath freed me
from the law of sin and of death.' Thus, you see, we have always in
respect of ourselves both cause of joy and mourning, therefore we must do
both. So have we in like manner continual causes both of joy and sorrow
from without us, if we look to the chui-ch of God : of joy, in regard there
is a God in heaven who hath an eye to his church, who pitieth it and ten-
dereth* it as the apple of his eye ; that takes to heart the afflictions of it ;
that will be glorious in the midst of the troubles of his people, by uphold-
ing, comforting, and turning all to the best for them ; — of sorrow also, in
respect of the miseries under which the church of God doth groan, of which
we are bound to take notice, and so to weep with them that weep, Isa.
xxii. 12 ; Amos vi. 6 ; Eom. xii. 15. You see the rare mixture of joy and
sorrow in a Christian, whereby he is made capable of this great privilege,
as neither to be swallowed up of grief, because that his sorrow proceeds
from a heart where there is cause of joy, nor to lose himself in excessive
joy, because he always sees in himself cause of sorrow. Now, as it is to
be seen in other mixtures that there is not at all times an equal quantity or
portion of each particular thing to be mingled, but now more of the one,
and at another time more of the other, according as the cause doth vary,
so is it in this mixture of joy and sorrow for ourselves and for others ;
Bometimes joy must abound with the causes of it, and sometimes sorrow
with its causes doth superabound. It will be worth our inquiry, therefore,
to know when to joy most, and when to weep most, which we shall know
by God's call in outward occasions, and by the spirit of discretion within
us, which will guide us. For God hath given his children a spirit of dis-
cretion, that will teach them when to joy and when to weep most. As God
calls to mourning now in these times that the church of God is in misery,
as he calls for sighs for the afflictions of Joseph, so the spirit of discretion
within us doth tell us what to do.

Quest. Yet here may be a question, How shall we know when to cease
and leave off mourning ? for the soul is a finite thing, and cannot dwell
upon one action always, because it hath many things to do ; and therefore
it cannot always mourn nor always rejoice.

Ans. To this I answer, that we have mourned enough, and discharged
our duty sufficiently therein, when we have overcome our hearts, and brought
them to a temper of mourning, and have complained before God, spread
the ill of the times before him, and entreated pity from him, having poured
out ourselves in prayer, though short, yet effectual. When we have this
done, then we have discharged our duty in mourning, and may turn to other
occasions as God doth require of us ; for when we have mourned and wept,
then we must look upon causes of rejoicing and thanksgiving. We must
always remember so to mourn and weep that yet notwithstanding, looking
upon God's blessing upon us both in kingdom, state, and our own particular
persons, we may be excited to thankfulness ; for we must not always be
sullen, looking upon the evil, but casting our eyes upon the good things we
do enjoy, we must provoke ourselves to be thankful. Even as men that
have their eyes dazzled will look upon some green colour to recover their
sight again, so when we have wrought upon our souls and brought them to
mourn, then to help and raise them up, we ought to look upon causes of
joy and thankfulness. We have cause of thankfulness when we consider
that many churches in France and other places are invaded by enemies,
* That is, ' guardeth.'— G.

THE ART OF MOURNING.

oppressed with cruelty, and deprived of liberty, while yet we enjoy the
liberty and free passage of the gospel, being freed from the destruction of
war and pestilence, which devoureth so many that it makes the land to
mourn. He continueth to us liberty to hear the word, and gives us many
blessings which others have not. Nay, we have cause to bless God for
freeing us from that terriblest judgment of all judgments, — which makes both
church and commonwealth to mourn, — because he doth not suffer us to fall
into the hands of man, but takes us into his own hand to correct. It is
God's infinite mercy that he doth not humble us by our enemies, but takes
us into his own hand. Therefore let us not provoke him, lest he give us
up to the hands of our merciless enemies, which is a terrible judgment.
We had better an hundred times meet him by repentance, and cast our-
selves into his hands, for then we have only to deal with a merciful God ;
but when we are to deal with merciless men that scorn the gospel, then we
have both God and them to deal with, which doubles our affection.

Therefore let us mourn, seeing we have cause, for ourselves and the
estates of others ; but yet let us be thankful, for if we would be more
thankful for God's benefits, we should have them longer continued. For,
as prayer begs blessings, so thanksgiving continues them. As the best
way to obtain good things is prayer and mourning, so the best way to pre-
serve them is thanksgiving and rejoicing. So, then, we have plainly seen
that Christians should not always be dumpish and look sourly, but they
must as well rejoice and be thankful, as mourn and weep.

Quest. 1. But here, ere I proceed, I must answer some cases of con-
science. As, first. What shall we say to those souls that cannot weep for
the sins and miseries of the church, and therefore complain for the want
of it?

Secondly, What shall we say to that soul that can weep, but more for
outward than for spiritual things ?

Sol. 1. To the first I answer briefly, that we must not speak friar-like of
tears, and never know from whence they come. But when we speak of
weeping, we must always understand that tears are no further good than
when they spring from sorrow and love within, than when they proceed
from inward hatred to sin, and from fear and love to the church of God. If
this be in a man, the matter is not much for tears. There may be weeping
without true sorrow, as there was in Esau for the blessing, Gen. xxvii, 38 ;
and so the Jews, they could weep and howl upon their beds when there was
a famine, yet there was no sound sorrow in them.

And, on the contrary, there may be true sorrow without weeping, yea,
and such may it be that there can be no weeping, because their sorrow may
be so great that it is rather an astonishment than a weeping. In a fresh
wound in the body, at the first there is not such pain felt nor the blood
Been, because the part is astonied only ; so the soul for a time may be
in such an astonishment and grief that there may be no expression of tears.
Again, the soul doth follow the temperature of the bod3^ Some are of a
more easy constitution to shed tears than others, so that there may be more
grief where there are fewest tears.

But to come to the question more directly, we ought to think our estates
not so good as they should be, if we cannot at one time or other weep for
the sins and miseries of the church. If we can shed tears for outwai'd
things at one time or other, and cannot weep for spiritual, it is a bad sign ;
for certainly, one time or other ordinarily God's children express their
sorrow for their sins, and the estate of the church, by tears. They either

THE ART OF MOURNING. 71

have tears for spiritual respects, or else they mourn that they cannot mourn,
grieve that they cannot grieve, and desire that they might mourn and that
they could weep. They wish with Jeremiah that their head were a fountain
of tears, they wish they might have their bodies to answer the intent of
their soul, that so they might largely express outwardly their inward grief.
As Jeremiah feared he should not have tears enough, therefore wished that
his head were a fountain of tears, so they desire, Oh that I could mourn,
and that I could weep !

Sol. 2. But what shall we say to those that can weep for other things ?
Shall they be condemned for hypocrites ?

1. I answer, No ; for a torrent may run faster for the present than a
continual current ; so on the sudden there may be tears and grief for out-
ward things, but yet grief for sin is more because of the continuance thereof.
For sin is a continual cause of sorrow. Whereas sorrow for outward things
is but on a sudden, as it was in David when he cried, ' Oh my son Absalom,
my son Absalom ! ' 2 Sam. xviii. 33. What ado is here on the sudden for
Absalom ! but yet he wept for his sins more, because that was a continual
grief. So in a Christian, there may be some sudden passion, when he may
seem to weep and grieve most for outward things, but yet his grief for
sin and the misery of the church is more, because it is a continual grief.

2. Again, Spiritual grief comes from spiritual causes. Tears for sin,
and for the church of God, do issue merely from spiritual grounds ; whereas
in [natural grief for outward things, we have both the Spirit and nature that
make us grieve. Now when both these meet together, they carry the soul
strongly, as in a stream. So that there must needs be more tears and
grief for outward things. As when the windows of heaven were opened
from above, and the foundations below were broken up, there must needs
follow a great flood. Gen. vii. 11 ; so when we have the Spirit from above,
and our nature below, there must of necessity be a great grief for outward
things. But yet in these cases, a little of spiritual sorrow is better than a
great deal of natural, for spiritual grief fats the soul. As the river Nile
runs through Egypt, and fats the land, so this heavenly water of tears and
grief fattens the soul, and makes it fit for all holy services. They are both
good, but one less than the other. Natural grief is allowable, which if a
man have not, he is in a reprobate sense ; for the apostle reckons this up
as a great sin, that in the latter days men should be without natural affec-
tion. So then we see, that for this reason also there may be a great store
of grief and tears for outward things.

3. Again, Let them that grieve that they cannot more grieve, know and
comfort themselves, that they have the Spirit of God within them, which
is an everlasting spring that will in time overcome all carnal and worldly
respects whatsoever, and make the heart in a fit temper of weeping and
grieving for spiritual respects.

Use. Well, if this be thus, what shall we think of the jovial people of
the world, who are so far from this sorrow, that— when a man shall come
and ask them when they wept for their sins, when they did ever mourn
and send up sighs to God for their swearing, lying, profanation of God's
Sabbath, for the wrong they have done to others, or for any of their sins—
the time was never yet wherein they ever shed a tear for sin, or had a
sigh, groan, or mourning for sin ? In what estate are we born in ? All
children of wrath, and heirs of damnation. But when got you out of this
state ? You have ever lived in jollity. Therefore as yet you are as you
were born, a child of wrath. Do ye think to reap, and never sow ? to

72 THE ART OF BIOUENING.

reap in joy, and never sow in tears ? God puts all his children's tears in
a bottle ; but thou sparest God a labour, because thou never weepest.
There are a company that engross all jollity and mirth, as if they had no
cause to weep, whose language yet when any man hears, and observes
their courses and living in gross sins, he may quickly judge that they of
all others have most cause to weep, though there be none more free from
mourning, and though they seem to be the only men of the world. But
I say to such, go weep, howl, and lament for your sins ; for your peace
is not yet made with God. Therefore never rest till thou hast got an
assurance from heaven that thy sins are forgiven thee. Many people are
angry because ministers tell them of this, but surely we must be damned
if we do not.

Therefore, as any would hope for comfort, and have God to wipe away
their tears from them in another world, let them work upon their hearts
here, to shed tears for their own sins first, and then for the sins of the
time ; for their own first, I say, for a man must first be good in himself
before he can be good to others ; and then let their grief extend to their
brethren even beyond the seas, to the forlorn estate of the church there.

Now the last thing that is noted in Josiah's weeping, is the sincerity of
it. ' Thou hast wept before me ;' that is, sincerely, before God. He sinned
before him, and is humbled before him. There is nothing hid from his
sight, not only open sins, but he knows the very thoughts of our hearts :
therefore let us weep before him without hypocrisy. No matter whether
the world see it or no ; but let us weep before God, as the prophet saith,
Jer. xiii. 17, ' My soul shall weep in secret for you, and mine eyes shall
weep, and drop down tears in the night season.' Let us weep in secret
before God ; for this is without hypocrisy. Now follows the issue of his
weeping and humbling of himself.

* I have even heard thee also,' saith the Lord.

In which words is set down GocVs gracious acceptation of Josialis liiimi-
Uatioii ; which was not without his special observation. ' For I have even
heard thee,' saith the Lord : so that it seems Josiah did utter some words of
grief, because God saith, ' I have heard it. And we may the rather think
so, because usually God's children do in their praj^ers add words unto their
tears, as David and good Hezekiah did. Howsoever then his prayer was
not a distinct prayer of a composed tenor of speech ; yet it was a prayer,
because that with these tears he did send up sighs, and groans, and uttered
broken words from a broken heart. There was such a language in his
heart that God did understand, for God understands the language of his
own Spirit in the hearts of his children. The Spirit knows what we mean,
as Kom. viii. 2(5, 27. God hath an ear to hear our desires, our sighs and
groans ; for tears have the weight of a voice, they speak for us. Where
there is true grief, many times there cannot come a composed tenor of
speech ; for a broken heart expresseth itself more in sighs, groans, and
tears, than in words. Though we do not utter distinct words in a form of
prayer, yet he hears our sighs and groans : his ears are open to the cries
of his children. So we learn from hence, for our comfort against all Satan's
temptations,

Doct. 6. That God takes a particidar notice, and understands the prayers
tee make unto him: he hears the groans of his children. So David saith,
' My groaning is not hid from thee,' Ps. xxxviii. 9. So the prophet says, Ps.
clxY. 18, 19, ' He will fulfil the desire of them that hear* him ; he will also

* Qu. ' fear ? '—En.

THE ART OF MOUKNING. 73

bear their cry, and will save tliern ;' yea, he knows our thoughts long before.
This must needs be so.

Ueason 1. First, Because he is gracious and merciful ; he is a God hear-
ing prayers.

2. Because of the relations which in his love he hath taken upon himself,
to be a Father. So that when a man shall, by the Spirit of adoption, call
God Father, there is such a deal of eloquence and rhetoric in this very
word, it works so upon the bowels of God, that he cannot choose but hear.
Even as a child, when he speaks to his father, and calls him by this name,
this word father doth so work upon him that he cannot but hear. So it
is with God ; when he hears us call him Father, he cannot but hear us.

3. Because of his nature and love, which is above the love of an earthly
father. Though a mother should forget, and not hear her child, yet the
Lord will hear us.

And likewise this is his promise : ' Call upon me in the day of trouble,
and I will hear thee, and thou shalt glorify me,' Ps. 1. 15.

4. Again, God cannot basely esteem of our prayers, because they are the
motions of his own Spirit. Oh, but they are broken prayers. It is true ;
but the Spirit understands them and makes intercession for us, with sighs
and groans that cannot be expressed ; and none can understand them but
the Spirit, Eom. viii. 26, 27.

6. Again, God cannot but hear our prayers, because they are offered up
in the name of a mediator. They are perfumed with the incense and sacri-
fice of his Son. Therefore he cannot but hear them.

7. Again, God must needs hear our prayers, because they are made
according to his will. When we pray for ourselves, and for the church of
God, it is according to God's will. So then, if we consider these respects,
God cannot but hear our prayers.

Ohj. But some will object, God doth not hear me: I have prayed a
long while, and yet he hath not given me an answer.

Ans. 1. I answer, God doth always hear, though he seemeth not to
hear sometimes, to increase our importunity. Christ heard the woman of
Canaan at first ; but yet, to increase her importunity, he gave her the
repulse and denial, and with the same, inward strength to wrestle with him.

Ans. 2. Again, God seems not to hear, because he delights in the music
of his children's prayers. Oh how he loves to hear the voice of his chil-
dren ! As a father to hear the language of his child, though it be none of
the best ; so it is sweet music in God's ears to hear the prayers of his
children. He will have prayers to be cries. Therefore he defers to hear ;
but in deferring he doth not defer, for he increaseth our strength, as in
Jacob's wrestling, that we might cry after him, wrestle with him, and ofler
violence unto him again.

Ans. 3. And sometimes, indeed, he will not hear us, because, it may be,
there is some secret Achan in the camp, or some Jonah in the ship ; some
sin, I mean, in the heart unrepented of; for in this case we may come
before God again and again, and he not hear us. This is the reason why
God hears not many Christians, because they have not made a thorough
inquisition into their own estates, found out their sins, and humbled them-
selves for it. Thus we see for what reasons God defers to hear our prayers.

Use 1. If this be so, that God doth hear us, let us make this use, to be
plentiful in prayers, and lay up a great store of them in the bosom of God,
for this is that will do us the most good. He hears every one in due time.
"We do never lose a sigh, a tear, or anything that is good, which proceeds

THE ART OF MOURNING.

from his own Spirit, but he will answer abundantly in his own time. For
he that gives a desire, and prepares our heart to praj', and gives us a
Mediator by whom to offer them up, will doubtless accept of them in his
own Son, and Avill answer them. The time will come when he will accept
of nothing else, and we shall have no other thing to offer up. What a
comfort will it then be, that we have in former times, and can now call
upon God ! The day is coming when goods will do us no good, but
prayers will. What a comfort then is it to a Christian, that he hath a God
to go to, that hears his prayers ! Let all the world join together against a
Christian, take away all things else and cast him into a dungeon, yet they
cannot take away his God from him. What a happiness is it to pray !
We can never be miserable so long as we have the Spirit of prayer. Though
we were in a dungeon with Jeremiah, or in the whale's belly with Jonah,'
yea, though in hell, yet there we might have cause of comfort.

Let us therefore be ashamed of our barrenness in this duty, and observe
whether God hear our prayers, or else how can we be thankful ? There be
many that pray, because their consciences do force them to some devotion,
and therefore they slubber over a few prayers that their consciences may
not smite them, but they never observe the issue of their prayers, whether
God hears them or not ; whereas God is a God hearing prayers, and the
child of God doth esteem of nothing but that which he hath from God, as
a fruit of prayer, and therefore accordingly he doth return thanks. God
will have his children beg all of him. As some fathers will give nothing
to their children, but they will have them first ask it of them, so God
will give us nothing but what we pray for. And though he doth exceed to
give us more than we ask, yet he looks that we should return thanks in
some measure proportionable to the benefit received. Therefore let us
observe how God hears our prayers, that so w^e may be suitably thankful.
This will strengthen our iaith in evil times when we can thus plead with
God. Hear, Lord ! Heretofore I came before thee, though weakly, yet
witha broken heart, and thou didst hear me then. Thou art still a God
hearing prayer, therefore. Lord, look upon my estate now and help me.
Seemg, then, God hears our prayers, let us think of this glorious privilege,
that we have liberty to go to the throne of grace in all our wants. The
whole world is not worth this one privilege. We cannot command the
prince's ear at all times ; but we have a God always to go to, that will hear
us. What a wretched folly is it therefore of those that, by their sins, bring
themselves into such a condition that they cannot have God to hear them.
j^ Quest. But how shall we make such prayers as God will hear ?

Ans. I answer fii-st of all. Would we be in such an estate that we may
enjoy this blessed privilege, to have God's ear ready to hear ?

1. First, Then hear him. If we will have God to hear us, then let us
hear God, as Josiah did. When he heard the word read, his heart melted.
For ' he that turneth away his ears from hearing the law, even his prayers
shall be abominable,' saith God, Prov. xxviii. 9.

And is it not good reason, think we, for God not to hear us, when we
will not hear him ? Prov. i. 24, 25, ' Because I have called, and you have
refused ; when you are in misery, and shall out of self-love cry to me to
be delivered, then I will refuse to hear you,' saith the Lord. Therefore
let all profane persons, that will not hear God, know a time will come,
that though they cry and roar, yet he will not hear them.

2. Secondly, K we will have God hear our prayers, they must proceed
from a broken heart. Prayers be the sacrifice of a broken spirit. Josiah

THE AET OF MOURNING. 75

had a tender and a broken heart, and therefore God could not despise his
prayers. So David pleads with God : Ps. li. 17, ' The sacrifice of God is
a broken and a contrite spirit.' So holy Bernard saith, ' I have led a life
unbefitting me ; but yet my comfort is, that a broken heart and a contrite
spirit, Lord, thou wilt not despise.'* God will hear the prayers and tears
of relenting hearts.

3. Thirdly, To strengthen our prayers we must add to them the wings
of love, faith, hope, and earnestness, as Josiah did here. Out of love to
his country his prayers were joined with weeping, and he wrestled with
tears. Oh ! the prayers that have tears with them cannot go without a
blessing.

4. Lastly, If we would have God to hear us, let us have such a resolu-
tion and purpose of reformation as Josiah had ; for his prayers were joined
with a purpose of reformation, which he afterwards performed in so strict a
manner, that there was never such a reformation among all the kings of
Judah as he made. To this purpose David saith, ' If I regard wickedness
in my heart, God will not hear my prayer,' Ps. Ixvi. 18. If we have but
a resolution to live in any sinful course, let us make as many prayers as
we will, God will not respect them. God regarded good Josiah, because
he had no purpose to live in any sin against him.

If we come with a traitorous mind unto God, with our sins in our arms,
we must look for no acceptation from him. When a man comes to a king
to put up a petition unto him, and comes with a dagger in his hand to stab
him, will the king accept of this man's petition ? So, do we think that
God will hear our prayers when we bring a dagger in our hand, to stab him
with our sins ? If we will not leave swearing, lying, pride, covetousness,
and the like, if we have not covenanted with our own hearts, but still go
on in sin, we shall never go away with a blessing. Josiah reformed him-
self; therefore God saith, ' I have also heard thee.' Thus if our prayers
issue from a heart rightly afiected, as good Josiah's was, then we shall
speed as he did ; for God did not only hear his prayer, but see how he
rewards, him with an excellent blessing ; to be taken home to heaven from
the troubles of this life : which we shall in the next place speak of.
* In Ms Letters very often. — G.

THE SAINT'S REFRESHmG.

SERMON IV.

Behold, I ivill gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt he [fathered to thy
grave in jjeace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I icill bring upon
this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king
ivord again. — 2 Cheon. XXXIV. 28.

It is for the most part the privilege of a Christian, that his last days are his
best ; and ' though weeping be in the evening, yet joy comes in the morn-
ing,' Ps. XXX. 5 ; though he do begin in darkness, yet he ends in light.
Whereas, on the contrary, the wicked begin in jollity and light, but end in
darkness ; yea, such a darkness as is 'utter darkness,' Mat. viii. 12 — by
Peter called the ' blackness of darkness,' 2 Pet. ii. 17 — the preparations
whereunto are, God's outward judgments in this life inflicted upon the im-
penitent and rebellious, wherein God many times puts a sensible, visible
difference betwixt the godly and the wicked ; as betwixt Lot and the Sodom-
mites, Noah and the^adulterous world, Moses and the Israelites with him,
from Korah, Dathan, and his company, the Egyptians and the Israelites
at the Red Sea ; and in this text, betwixt this good king and his people.
He must not see all the evil that God was to bring upon his wicked and
rebellious subjects. Oh the happiness of holiness, which is sure to speed
well in all storms whatsoever ; because on all the glory there is a defence,
as Isaiah speaks, Isa. iv. 5. Light is sown for the righteous, Ps. xcvii. 11 ;
and whatsoever his troubles be, yet his last end shall be blessed. ' Let
me die,' saith Balaam, ' the death of the righteous, and let my last end be
like his,' Num. xxiii. 10. Such honour have all his saints, such honour
had this good king Josiah ; being removed from hence that he might not
see the evil to come. Though he were taken from earth, yet it was for
his good, that he might be gathered into heaven, and make a royal
exchange.

The words contain a promise of a reward, and great favour unto good king
Josiah, that he should die, and be gathered unto his fathers; and that
which is more, the manner considered, that he should ' die in peace ; ' the
ground whereof is shewed unto him : ' Because thine eyes shall not see
all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of
the same.' God's promises are of three sorts. First, Such as he made

THE saint's eefreshing. 77

upon condition of legal obedience : ' Do this and tliou slialt live.' Secondly,
When we are humbled upon sight of our sins, then he propounds another
way, and promises that if we believe in Jesus Christ our surety, who hath
made satisfaction for us, then we shall live. This is the grand promise of
all, the promise of life everlasting, and pardon of sin. Thirdly, There are
promises of encouragement unto us, when we are in the state of grace. As
a father, who means to make his son an heir, doth give him many promises
of encouragement, so God deals with his children, when they are in the
covenant of grace.

There are, I say, promises of particular rewards to encourage them, as
they are sure of the main and great reward, namely, everlasting life.
Therefore Josiah being an heir of heaven, God did propound a promise of
encouragement unto him, by way of favour, to shew that his good works
were not unregarded. In general here,

Doct. 1. First, We may observe God's gracious dealinfj ivith his children,
that he takes notice of every good thing they do, and doth reward them for
it, yea, in this life. There is not a sigh but God hears it, not a tear but
he hath a bottle for it. Most men spare God a labour in this kind. He
promiseth ' to wipe away all tears from our eyes,' Eev. xxi. 4, but they
will shed none. Yet the least tear shed, and word spoken in a good cause,
goes not without a reward from God ; not so much as a cup of cold water,
but he rewards. Which must needs be so :

Because God looks upon the good things we do, being his own works
in us, as upon lovely objects, with a love unto them ; for though Josiah
had said nothing, yet his deep humiliation itself, was as it were a prayer,
that cried strongly in the ears of God, that he could not but reward it.
So that partly because God looks upon us as lovely objects, he loving the
work of his own Spirit, and partly because they cry unto God, as it were,
and pluck down a blessing from heaven, they cannot go unrewarded.

Use. This is matter of comfort, that God will not only reward us with
heaven, but will also recompense every good thing we do, even in this
world ; yea, such is his bounty, he rewards hypocrites. Because he will
not be beholding to them for any good thing they do, nor have them die
unrewarded, he recompenseth them with some outward favours, which is
all they desire. Ahab did but act counterfeit humiliation, and he was
rewarded for it, 1 Kings xxi. 27-29. So the Scribes and Pharisees did
many good things, and had that they looked for. They looked not for
heaven, but for the praise of men. This they had, as Christ tells them,
♦ Verily, I say unto you, you have your reward,' Mat. yi. 5. God will be
beholding to none ; but whosoever do anything that is good, they shall
have some reward, whether they be good or bad. If the conscience of a
man did judge well, he might come to God with boldness, not to brag of
good works, but out of an humble heart saying, ' Kemember me, Lord, as
I have dealt with thee.' So good Hezekiah did: ' Remember, Lord, how I
have walked before thee in truth,' Isa. xxxviii. 3. AVhen we labour in all
our actions to please God, we may with boldness approach to the throne of
grace, and say with Peter, Remember, Lord, ' Thou knowest that I love
thee,' John xxi. 15. If there were no other reward but this, that we have
a privilege to go to God with boldness, our conscience not accusing us, it
were enough. What a shame is it, then, that we should be so barren in
good works, seeing our labour shall not be unrewarded of the Lord ! Oh
then let us take counsel of the apostle : * Finally, my brethren, be ye sted-
fast and unmoveable, abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that

78 THE saint's refreshing.

your laboHi' is not in vain in the Lord,' 1 Cor. xv. 58. He hatli a
reward for every cup of cold water, for every tear. Every good deed we
do hath the force of a prayer to beg a blessing ; yea, our very tears speak
loud to God, although we say nothing. But to come to particulars.

* Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers,' &c.

Here we see this word behold, a word serving to stir up attention, set
before the promise, which was formerly set before a threatening, * Behold,
I will bring evil upon this place,' &c. Behold is as necessary before pro-
mises as threatenings. For the soul is ready to behold that which is evil,
and by nature is prone to dejection, and to cast down itself. Therefore
there need be a ' behold' put before the promise, to raise up the dejected
soul of Josiah or others, and all little enough. Christians should have two
eyes, one to look upon the ill, the other upon the good, and the grace of
God that is in them, that so we may be thankful. But they for the most
part look only upon the ill that is in them, and so God wants his glory and
we our comfort.

' Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to
thy grave in peace.'

Doct. 2. Mark here the language of Canaan, hoiv the Spirit of God in
common matters doth raise up the soul to think hifjhhj of them.

Therefore it is that the Holy Ghost sweetens death with a phrase of
* gathering.' Instead of saying, Thou shalt die, he saith, ' Thou shalt be
gathered.' How many phrases have we in Scripture that have comfort
wrapped in them, as there is in this phrase, ' Thou shalt be gathered to
thy grave in peace.' I will not speak how many ways peace is taken in
Scripture. 'Thou shalt die in peace;' that is, thou shalt die quietly,
honourably, and peaceably. And thou shalt not see the misery that I will
bring upon the state and kingdom. Thou shalt be gathered to thy fathers,
which is meant to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all the faithful patriarchs.

Doct. 3. Only observe, it is a very sweet word, and imports unto us,
that death is nothinr/ but a (lathering, and presupposeth that God's children
are all scattered in this world amongst wicked men, in a forlorn place, where
they are used untowardly, as pilgrims use to be in a strange land. There-
fore we had need be gathered, and it is a comfort to be gathered. But
from whence shall he be gathered ? He shall be gathered from a wicked,
confused world ; and to whom shall he go ? To his Father. His soul
shall go to their souls, his body shall be laid in the grave with theirs.
As if he had said. Thou shalt leave some company, but go to better ; thou
shalt leave a kingly estate, but thou shalt go to a better kingdom,

Doct. 4. The changes of God's children are for the better. Death to them
is but a gathering. This gathering doth shew the preciousness of the thing
gathered ; for God doth not use to gather things of no value. Josiah was
a pearl worth the gathering. He was one of high esteem, very precious.
So every Christian is dearly bought, with the blood of Christ, Therefore
God will not suffer him to perish, but will gather him before the evil days
come. As men use to gather jewels before fire comes into their houses ;
or as husbandmen will be sure to gather their corn, before they will let
the beasts come into the field ; so saith God to him, I will be sure to
gather thee before I bring destruction upon the land. We are all by nature
lost in Adam, and scattered from God, therefore we must be gathered again
in Christ. For all gathering that is good is in him ; for he is the head of

THE SAINT S EEFEESUING. 79

all union that is good. And this is to be wrought by the ordinances of
God, by the means of the ministry, which is appointed unto that end, to
gather us, as Mat. xxiii. 37, Christ speaks to Jerusalem, ' How often would
I have gathered you together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, hut you would not.' Christ would have gathered them unto him-
self, by his word, but they refused.

AH the gathering of a Christian in this life is a gathering to Christ by
faith, and to the communion of saints by love, 1 Thes. iv. 17 ; and the
more he doth grow in grace, the more near communion he hath with Christ.
Then after this gathering by grace, there comes by death a gathering to
Christ in glory. For the soul goes for ever and ever to be with the Lord.
After this comes a higher degree of gathering at the day of judgment, when
there shall be a great meeting of all saints, and the soul and body shall be
reunited together, to remain for ever with the Lord. Let us then think of
this, that whatsoever befalls us in the world, we shall be sure to be gathered,
for death is but a gathering. For from whence goes Josiah ? From a
sinful world, a sinful estate, a wretched people, unto his fathers, who are
all good, nay, to God his Father. We are all here as Daniel in the lion's
den, as sheep among wolves ; but at death we shall be gathered to our
fathers. It is a gathering to a better place, to heaven ; and to better
persons, to fathers, where we shall be for ever praising the Lord, never
offending him, loving and pleasing one another. Here Christians displease
one another, and cannot be gathered together in love and affection, but there
they shall be gathered in unity of love for ever.

Use. This serves, first of all, to comfort, us in departure of friends, to
render their souls up with comfort into the hands of God. We know they
are not lost, but sent before us. We shall be gathered to them, they can-
not come to us. Therefore why should we grieve ? They are gathered in
quietness and rest to their fathers. This should also make us render our
souls to God, as into the hands of a faithful Creator and Redeemer. From
whence go we ? From a sinful world and place of tears, to a place of
happiness above expression. Why should we be afraid of death ? It is
but a gathering to our fathers. What a comfort is it to us in this world,
that we shall go to a place where all is good, where we shall be perfectly
renewed, made in the image of God, and shall have nothing defaced ? Let this
raise up our dead and drowsy souls. Thus we shall be one day gathered.
The wicked shall be gathered together, but a woeful gathering is it. They
shall be gathered like a bundle of tares, to be thrown into hell, there for
ever to burn. They are dross and chaff, never gathered to Christ by faith,
nor to the body of the church by love ; and therefore they are as dross and
chaff, which the wind scatters here, and shall for ever be scattered here-
after, Ps. i. 4. They are, as Cain, vagabonds in regard of the life of grace
here ; and therefore shall be for ever scattered from the life of glory here-
after. They shall be gathered to those whom they delighted in, and kept
company with, whilst they were in this world. They loved to keep com-
pany with the wicked here, therefore they shall be gathered to them in hell
hereafter. This is sure, thou shalt Hve in heaven or hell afterwards, with
those whom thou livedst with here. Dost thou live only delighted in evil
company now ? It is pity thou shouldst be severed from them hereafter.
If thou be gathered to them in love and affection here, thou shalt be gathered
to them in hell and destruction hereafter. It is a comfortable evidence to those
that delight in good company, that they shall be with them in heaven for ever,
' Hereby wc know that we are translated from death to life, because we love

80 THE saint's kefreshing.

the brethren,' 1 John iii. 14. And on the contrary, those that are brethren
in evil here, may read in their own wicked courses and conversation what
will become of them hereafter. They are all tares, and shall be gathered
together in a bundle, and cast into hell fire for ever.

' And thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace.*

Here is a reward, not only to die, but to die in peace. Josiah goes the
way of all flesh ; he must die though he be a king. This statute binds
all. All are liable to death. ' And thou shalt be gathered, or put in thy
grave in peace.' This doth declare that he should be buried ; the ground
whereof is out of Gen. iii. 19, ' Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt
return.' From earth we came, and to earth we shall return. The earth
we carry and the earth we tread on shall both meet together. In that God
doth here promise it to Josiah as a blessing, we may hence learn,

Doct 5. That burial is a comely and lionourahle thing, and that we ought
to have respect unto it, partly because the body of a dead Christian is a
precious thing. They are temples of the Holy Ghost, members of Christ,
and therefore ought to have the honour of burial. Partly because it shews
our love and afl'ection to the party buried, for it is the last kindness we
can do unto them. Again, we ought to have respect to burial, to shew our
hope of the resurrection, that though the body be cast into the earth, yet
it shall rise ; though it be sown in dishonour, yet it shall rise in honour.
So we see that for these reasons burial is honourable. Therefore it is said
of the faithful in Scripture, that they were buried, to shew how honourable a
thing it is ; and indeed it is an honour, specially for fathers, to be buried
by their friends and children, and carried by them into their graves. For
to be buried like a beast is a judgment to wicked men.

Quest. But what then shall we say to all those that are not thus buried,
whose bodies are given to be torn by wild beasts, or burnt to ashes, or
flung into rivers, as antichrist useth to deal with many saints ?

Ans. I answer, that in this case faith must raise itself above difficulty ;
for though it be a favour and blessing of God, to have Christian burial after
we are dead, yet Christians must be content to go without this blessing
sometimes, when God calls them to the contrary, as when we cannot have
it upon good terms, with peace of conscience, or with God's love. In this
case a burial in regard of God's favour is not worth the naming. Therefore
let all Christians be content to put their bodies, life and all, to hazard ;
not only to be willing to want burial when we are dead, but to sacrifice our
lives and whatsoever else for God, as many saints have been martyred,
and their bodies burnt to ashes. Yet God will gather together the ashes
of the dead bodies of his children ; for ' right precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints,' Ps. cxvi. 15. And is it not better to want
this with God's favour, than to have the most honourable burial in the
world on evil terms ? For what saith the Spirit of God ? ' Happy and
blessed are they which die in the Lord,' Eev. xiv. 13; not happy are
they that die in pomp, and are buried in state, but happy are they that
die in the Lord. Therefore when we may not have it, although it be a
comely thing, yet if we have God and Christ, wo have all that is good.
Therefore it is no matter what becomes of our bodies after we are dead ;
for though we be flung into the sea, burnt to ashes, yet both sea and earth
must give up all the dead, as it is Eev. sx. 13. Therefore as for our
bodies, let us be willing that God may have them, who gave them ; and if
he will have us to sacrifice our lives for him, let us do it willingly.

THE saint's refreshing. 81

' And thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace.'

Obj. How is this ? for we read, in the succeeding chapter of Josiah, that
he died a violent death; he was slain by the hands of his enemies. Is this
to die in peace ?

Sol. I answer, the next words do expound it. He died in peace,
* because his eyes should not see the evil that God would bring upon the
land afterwards ;' as if he had said. Thou shalt not see the ruin of the
church and commonwealth. So, though Josiah were slain by idolaters, by
Pharaoh and his chariots, yet ho died in peace comparatively with a worse
state of Hfe. For though he died a bloody death by the hands of his
enemies, yet he died in peace, because he was prevented by death from
seeing that which was worse than death. For God may reserve a man in
this life to worse miseries than death itself.

From hence we learn this instruction,

Doct. 6. That death may he less miserable than the ill which a man may
live to see in this life ; or, that the miseries of this life may be such as that
death may be much better than life, and far rather to be cliosen. We may
fall into such miseries whilst we do live, that we may desire death, they
being gi-eater than it. The reason hereof is, because that a sudden death,
in some respects, is better than a lingering one. One death is better than
many deaths, for how many deaths did Josiah escape by this one death !
It would have been a death to him if he had lived to see the ruin of the
commonwealth, the church of God, and his own sons carried into captivity,
to have seen them slain, their eyes plucked out, the temple of God plucked
down, and idolatry set up.

We ought then to be careful how to avoid a cursed and miserable estate
after death. All the care of wicked men is to avoid death. But they may
fall into such an estate in this life that they may wish death, as an heathen
emperor once did, who complaining said, ' I have none will do me so much
favour as to kill me.'* All the desire of atheists is, that they may live.
Thou base atheist, thou mayest fall into such an estate as is worse than
death, and if that be so terrible, what will thatf estate be after death ? An
atheist in this hfe desires hfe. Oh that I might not die ! But in hell thou
wilt desire. Oh that I might die ! The time will come that thou shalt
desire that which thou canst not abide to hear of now. What desperate
folly is it therefore to redeem life with base conditions ; not to give it
for the gospel when we are called to it. In this case, that base life which
we so stand upon, will cost us the loss of our soul for ever in hell, when
we shall desire to die.

' Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be put in thy
grave in peace.' The Lord saith, he ' wiU gather.' So we see,

Doct. 7. Our times are in God's hand ; as David saith, ' My time is in
thy hand,' Ps. xxxi. 15. Our times of coming into the world, continuing
in it, and going out of it, are in God's hand. Therefore he saith, ' Thou
shalt be put in thy grave in peace.' God hath power of death. Our going
and coming is from God ; he is the Lord of life and death.

Use. This is a comfort unto us xchile u-e live in this xcorld, that whilst we
live we are not in our own hands, we shall not die in our own time ; neither
is it in our enemies' hands, but in God's hand. He hath appointed a
certain time of our being here in this world. This should tie us to obedi-
ence, and to die in hope and faith ; because when we die we are but
gathered to our fathers, to better company and place than we leave behind us.
* Qu. • Nero ' ?— G. t Qu. ' thine ' ?— Ed.

VOL. VI. ^

82 THE saint's refreshing.

Again we see here that men may outlive their oivn happiness, tliat at last
life may be a judgment unto them, because they may see that which is
worse than death. How many parents live to see the ruin of their own
families ! the undoing of their children by their own miscarriage ! We
see God takes away Josiah, because he will not have him live, as it were,
beyond his happiness. We see how tenderly affected God is for the good
of his children. He pities them when they are in misery, knows what they
are able to bear, and will lay no more upon them than he gives them
strength to endure. God knew that Josiah was tender-hearted, and melted
at the very threatenings, which if he could not endure to hear against his
country, could he ever have endured to have seen the miseries upon his
people and country ? Surely no. Therefore God will rather gather him
to his fathers.

Now this is a wonderful comfort, that many times God will not let us
see too great matter of grief. Let us then imitate God, and deal so one
with another as God deals with us — the husband with the wife, and the
wife with the husband, and the like. Let us not acquaint them with such
things as may make them more grieve than is fitting, or they are able to
bear. God would not have Josiah to see the misery he brought upon his
country, because he knew that he was tenderly disposed, that a little grief
would soon overcome him. So let us beware of causing any to grieve, or
to let them know things which they are not able to bear.

Again, Seeing this is a grief to a kind and loving father, yea, worse than
death, to see the ruin of his child, this should teach all those that are
young, to take care that they give no occasion of offence to those that are
over them, for to grieve ; which will be worse than death unto them. It
would have been worse than a death unto Josiah to have seen the ruin of
his children. So for those children which have been cherished by their
parents in their nonage, it will be worse than death to them in their age to
see their children lewd and come to ruin, whereby they bring so much
sooner the grey head of their father to the grave in sorrow. These offend
against the sixth commandment, which saith, ' Thou shalt not kill.' Let
us then rather revive and comfort the heart of those that have been good
unto us, and not kill them, or do that which is worse than death unto them.

* Neither shall thy eyes see the misery I will bring upon this people.'
Doct. 8. Here we learn again that it is the sight of misery which icorks the
deepest imjn'ession. It is not the hearing of a thing, but the sight of it,
which affecteth most deeply ; as in the sacrament, the seeing of the bread
broken, and the wine poured out, works a deep impression ; and because
God knew Josiah's heart would break at the sight of the misery, therefore
he tells him, * Thine eyes shall not see the evil that I will bring upon this
place.' The sight is a most working sense, to make the deepest impression
upon the soul. What shall be our great joy and happiness in heaven, but
that we shall see God for evermore ? Sight is a blessing upon earth, both
the eyes of the body wherewith we see, and the eyes of the soul — that is,
faith — which makes us see afar off, till in heaven we shall see him face to
face. So that sight makes us both happy and miserable.

Use 1. How ivretched, then, is the estate of them that shall see themselves,
with their own wicked eyes, sent to hell, tvith the creature they delighted in.
That which the eyes see, the heart feels. There are many atheists, whose
whole care is to preserve life. They would live, although they live the life
of a dog. But the time will come, that thou wilt more earnestly desire

THE saint's refbeshing. 83

death than life. Thy eyes shall see, and thy body feel, and thy conscience
too, that which is worse than a thousand deaths. Thou shalt then die a
living death. The worm of thy conscience shall gnaw thee for ever, and
shalt see and feel the tormenting fire which shall never be quenched. That
which the wicked nourish now to follow their humour, never caring to please
God, the day will be when they shall desire to avoid it ; and that which
they labour to avoid most now, the time will come when they shall most
desire it. Death is the king of fears. It is terrible. But then look be-
yond death : what is behind that ? Thou shalt see at the heels of it hell
and eternal damnation.

Use 2. This should teach us also how to understand the promise of long
life. It is a promise and a favour of God to be desired. It is a prayer
with condition, if God see it good ; else God may give us long life, to see
and feel a world of misery. Therefore such promises are to be desired
conditionally : if God see it good for us.

Doct. 9. Again, The Holy Ghost saith here, ' Thy eyes shall not see the
evil I will bring upon this place.' Hence we learn, that those which be dead
in the Lord, are freed from seeing of any evil or miserg. The godly shall see
no misery after death. If this be so, then they do not go into purgatory
after death, as the papists hold. The Holy Ghost saith, Josiah is taken
away from seeing any evil to come. Then sure they do not fall into such
misery after death, which is worse than death. True, say the papists, such
excellent men as Josiah do go to heaven immediately. Ay, but the Holy
Ghost saith by Isaiah, Ivii. 1, that ' the righteous are taken away from the
evil to come.' It is spoken of the whole generation of righteous men.
Therefore it is a sottish thing for them to hold that any of them shall see
purgatory, when God saith the righteous are taken away from seeing any
evil to come.

Doct. 10. And as it is against them in this, so here is another conclusion
against popery, that takes aivay their invocation of saints : for the righteous
go to heaven, and cannot see or know our wants and miseries ; yea, they
are taken away, because they should not see the miserable estate that befalls
their posterity. Then if they do not know our wants, how can they hear
and help us when we pray, seeing it is a part of their happiness not to
understand our miseries ? For if Josiah, from heaven, could have seen
the desolation and misery that befell his country afterwards, it would have
wrought upon him. But Josiah was taken away, that he should not see it.
Therefore, why should men spend that blessed incense and sacrifice of
prayer, unto those that cannot hear ? But put case, they could hear some ;
yet can they hear all that pray unto them ? A finite creature hath but a
finite act and limited power. How can one saint give a distinct answer
and help to perhaps a thousand prayers, as the virgin Mary hath many
thousand prayers offered her ? How can she distinctly know, and give a
distinct answer to every prayer ?

' Thou shalt be put in thy grave in peace, neither shall thy eyes see all
the evil that I will bring upon this place.' Let us learn here a mystery of
divine providence in his death; for there is a mystery of providence, not only
in great matters, as election and predestination, but in ordering of the
common things of the world. How many excellent mysteries are here wrapt
together in this death of Josiah ! As, first, it is said that he died in peace,
whereas he died a violent death, and was slain by the hands of his enemies.
His death was both a mercy and a correction : a correction for his error in
being so hasty in going to war with Pharaoh, king of Egypt ; and yet it

THE SAINT S EEFRESHING.

was a mercy, because it prevented him from seeing the evil to come, and
so likewise brought him sooner to heaven. It is a strange thing to see how
the wisdom of heaven can mingle crosses and favours, corrections and
mercies together ; that the same thing should be both a mercy to Josiah
to be taken away, and yet a correction also for his error, in going to fight
against Necho, king of Egypt, as we see 2 Chron. xxxv. 23. We may have
mercies and afflictions upon us at the same time, as God, by the same death,
corrected Josiah's folly, and rewarded his humihty.

Mark here again another mystery, in the carriage of divine providence :
how he brings his promises to pass strangely above the reach of man ; as
here, he having promised Josiah that he should die in peace, one would
have thought that Josiah should have died in pomp and state. No. Thou
shalt die in peace, although thou be slain by the hand of thy enemies ; thou
shalt come to heaven, although it be by a strange way. Thus God brings
his children to heaven by strange ways, yea, by contrary ways, [by] afflic-
tions and persecutions. Paul knew he should come to Eome, although it
were by a strange way ; though he suffered shipwreck, and was in great
danger, as we may see Acts xxvii. 2, seq. God hath strange ways to bring
his counsels to pass, which he doth so strangely, as we may see his own
hand in it.

Again, Here we may see another mystery in divine providence, concern-
ing the death of Josiah, in that he icas taken aicay being a young man, but
thirty-nine years old, who was the flower of his kingdom, and one upon
whom the flourishing estate of such a kingdom did depend. Now, for such
a gracious prince to be taken away in such a time, and at such an age, when
he might have done much good, a man would hardly believe this mystery
in divine providence. But ' our times are in God's hand,' Ps. xxxi. 15.
His time is better than ours. And therefore he, seeing the sins of the
people to be so great, that he could not bear with them longer,— for it was
the sins of the people that deprived them of Josiah. It was not the king
of Egypt who was the cause of his death, but the sins of the land — those
caused God to make this way, to take away their gracious king.

Use. Here we may admire the wisdom of God, who doth not give an
account unto us of his doings, why he suffers some to live, and takes away
others ; why he sufiers the wicked to live, and takes away his own. We can
give little reason for it, because it is a mystery ; but God best knoweth the
time when to reap his own corn.

' Neither shall thy eyes see all the evil I will bring upon this place, and
upon the inhabitants of the land.'

Doct. 11. Here the Holy Ghost doth insinuate unto us that whilst
Josiah was alive, God would not bring this judgment upon the land, but
after his death, then it should come upon them. So here we learn this
comfortable point of instruction, that the lives of God's children do keep
hack judgment and evil from the place tv here they live, and their death is a
forerunner of judgment. Their life keeps back ill, and their death plucks
down ill. While thou art alive, I will bring no evil upon this place, but when
thou art gone, then I will bring it down, saith God. The reasons of this are,

Eeason 1. Because gracious men do make the times and the places good
where they live. It is a world of good that is done by their example and
help. While they live the times are the better for them.

Reason 2. And again, they keep back ill, beccmse gracious men do bind God
hy their prayers. They force, as it were, a necessity upon God, that he

THE SAINT S EEFRESHING.

must let the world alone. They bind his hands, that he will do nothing
while they are in it ; as to Lot in Sodom, * I can do nothing while* thou
art gone, saith the angel,' Gen. xix. 22. They stand in the gap, and keep
God from pouring down the vials of his wrath. But when they are gone,
there is nothing to hinder or stop the current of divine justice, but that it
must needs have his course. As when men have gathered their corn into
their barns, then let their beasts, or whatsoever else go into the field, they
care not ; and as when the jewels are taken out of a rotten house, though
the fire then seize upon it, men regard not. So when God's jewels are
gathered to himself, then woe to the wicked world, for then God will
break forth in wrath upon them. Woe to the old world when Noah goes
into the ark, for then follows the flood. Woe to Sodom when Lot goes out
of it, for then it is sure to be burned. Luther prayed that God would not
bring war upon the people in Germany all his time, but when he died, the
whole land was overspread with war. So, before the destructiou of Jeru-
salem, God did gather the Christians to a little city called Pella, near
Jerusalem, then came Titus and Vespasian and ruinated the city of Jeru-
salem.! So there are many gracious parents that die, after whose death
comes some miserable end to their wicked children, but not before. God
takes away the parents out of the world, that they might not see the ruin
of their children. So then we see that it is clear, that good men keep
back judgment from the places where they live.

What should we learn from hence ?

Use 1. This should teach us to malxc much of such men as truhjfear God,
seeing it is for their sakes that God doth spare us. They carry the bless-
ing of God with them wheresoever they go. As Laban's house was blessed
for Jacob's sake. Gen. xxx. 27, and Potiphar's for Joseph's sake. Gen.
xxxix. 23, so the wicked are spared and fare the better for the saints who
live among them. But what is the common course of wicked men ? To
hate such with a deadly hatred above all others, because their lives and
speeches do discover the wickedness of theirs, and because they tell them
the truth, and reprove them.

Therefore it was that Ahab could not endure the sight of Micaiah, that
holy prophet, who without flattery spake downright truth, 1 Kings xxii. 8,
seq. So it is now beyond seas and elsewhere. They labour to root out
all the good men. But what will they get by it ? Surely it will be a
thousand times worse with them than it is ; for if they were out, then woe
to the land presently.

Use 2. This should also teach us to pray to God to Mess those that arerfood.
Is it not good for us to uphold those pillars whereby we stand ? What
madness is it for a man to labour to pull down the pillar whereby he is
holden alive ? As Samson, pulling down the pillars of the house, brought
death upon himself, so godly men, the pillars of this tottering world, which
uphold the places whereby they live, being once shaken, all the whole
state falls. Therefore let us not be enemies to our own good, to hate the
godly ; for it is for their sakes the Lord shews mercy to us, and refrains to
pour out his judgment upon the wicked world. And when the best gather-
ing of all gatherings shall come, that the elect of God shall be gathered
together, then comes the misery of all miseries to the wicked. So we see
this point is clear, that the godly, while they are alive, keep back ill and
bring much good. For doth God continue the world for wicked men ?
Surely no. For what glory and honour hath God from such wicked
* That is, ' until.'— Ed. t Cf. Note cccc, Vol. III. p. 536.— G.

8G THE saint's kefkeshing.

wretches ? Do they not swear, lie, live filthily, and ahnse his members ?
Is it for these that God doth continue the world ? Surely no ; but for
the godly' s sake are judgments deferred, and the world is continued.

Use 3. If this be thus, iveU may ice lament the death of those that are good.
For when they are gone, our safety is gone. ' They are the chariots and
horsemen of Israel,' 2 Kings ii. 12. Therefore well may we bewail their
loss. Well might Jeremiah lament for the death of Josiah, for together
with the breath of Josiah the life of that state breathed out ; together with
him, the flourishing condition of Jerusalem died, and lay bmied with him
as it were in the same grave.

See here again how God correcteth too much resting on the arm of
flesh. They blessed themselves under Josiah, as if no evil should come
near them ; as appears. Lament, iv. 20, ' The breath of our nostrils, the
anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said. Under his
shadow we shall live.' There is no greater wrong to ourselves, and to
others on whom we rest so much, than to secure ourselves so much on
them as to neglect serious turning to God.

' Neither shall thy eyes see all the evil I will bring upon this place.'

This is the ground why he should die in peace, ' Because he shall not
see all the evil I will bring upon this place.' Here we see that the judg-
ment which God threatened to bring upon the church and commonwealth
is set down by this word ' evil.' ' Thine eyes shall not see all the evil I
will bring upon this place.' But who sends this evil. It is an evil brought
by God. Thou shalt not see the evil ' I will bring,' &c. It was not God
that brought it properly, but Nebuchadnezzar, who carried his sons into
captivity. Howsoever, God had a hand in it. ' For is there any evil in the
city and God hath not done it ? ' saith the prophet, Amos iii. 6. But we
must distinguish between evil. There is,

1. The evil of sin ; and 2. The evil of punishment.

First, The evil of sin ; and this God doth not bring, for it is hateful unto
him. Then the evil of punishment, which is twofold :

(1.) Either that which comes immediately from God, as famine, pesti-
lence, or the like ; in which punishments we are to deal with God alone.

(2.) Or else, the evil that comes from God, but by men, which he useth
as instruments to punish us, and this is by war and cruel usage.

Now thus Josiah is taken away from this greatest evil we can suffer in
this life ; to have God correct us by the hands of men. For when we have
to deal with God, the labour is easier to prevail with him, as David did,
2 Sam. xxiv. 14. But when we have to deal with merciless men, then we
have to deal with the poisoned malice of men, besides God's anger. Now
the evil that comes from God is chiefly,

The ill which seizeth upon the soul after death ; or else, the evil which
seizeth upon the whole man, both soul and body, both in this and after
this life.

Thus God is said to bring evil, not the evil of sin, but the evil of punish-
ment.

Doct. 12. Hence we learn, that the evils uhich we suffer, they are from
the evil of sin. It is sin that makes God to bring evil upon the creature.
If we look upward to God, there is no evil in the world, for in that consi-
deration all things are good so far as he hath a hand in them. Therefore,
whatsoever the creature suffers, it comes from the meritorious evil, the evil
of sin. It comes fi'om God, but through the evil of sin provoking him.

THE saint's kefreshing. 87

Quest. If any man ask, How can God, which is good, bring that which
is evil ?

Sol. I answer. We must know that the evil of punishment is the good of
justice. All the evil that he doth is good, as it comes from him in his
justice punishing, because it doth good to them that are punished, either
to cause them return, or if they will not, to shew the glory of his justice in
condemning them. It is the good of justice, and it is not always in God
only permitting or suffering such a thing for to be done ; but it is in him
as an act, having a hand in it. Therefore God saith, ' Ashur is the rod of
my wrath ; '* so that in all punishments God hath a hand, whether it
be upon the body or soul.

. Use. This serves for direction unto us. To begin where ive should hegin ;
in all our afflictions to go to heaven and make our peace with God, and
not go to secondary causes. For all evil of punishment comes from him.
Let us, if we fear evil, make our peace with God by repentance and new
obedience ; and then he will overrule all secondary causes so as to help us.
Go not in this case to the jailor, or to the executioner, but go to the judge.
Let us make our peace in heaven first, and then there will be soon a com-
mand for our ease. Yea, Christ can command the wind and sea to be still,
the devil himself to be quiet, if our peace be made with him.

Therefore let us learn this lesson, and not fret against the instrument
whereby God useth to correct us. David had learned thus much when
Shimei railed upon him : ' It is God that hath bid him, therefore let him
alone,' 2 Sam. xvi. 11. So holy Job saith, ' It is God that gives, and God
that takes away,' Job i. 21. He doth not only say, God gives, but God
takes away. Oh but it was the Chaldeans that took it away. Ay, but it is
no matter for that, God gave them leave. Therefore let us carry ourselves
patiently in all troubles, submitting ourselves under the mighty hand of
God, from whom we have all evil of punishment.

Ohj. Again, Here we have another mystery of divine providence. For
it may be objected. What ! will God bring evil upon his own church and
people ? upon the temple and place where his name is called upon, and
that by idolaters. Where is divine justice now ?

Sol. I answer. Hold thy peace, take not the balance out of God's hand.
He knows what is better for us f than we ourselves. We must not call God
to our bar, for we shall all appear before his. God useth servants and
slaves to correct his sons ; worse men than his people to correct his people.
It is his course so to do, when they of his own sin against him. For evil
men many times make evil men good, when they are used as instruments
to correct them ; as hei'e God useth wicked men to make his children good.
So God makes a rod of Ashur, to make his evil children better. He useth
slaves to correct his sons, because it is too base a service for the angels or
good men to do. Therefore he useth the devil and his instruments to do
it. Wherefore let us not call into question God's providence ; for when he
will punish his people, he can hiss for a worse people ; for Egypt, or Ashur,
or the like. So if he will punish England, he can hiss again for the Danes,
or Normans, to punish his own people. Let us not boast we are God's
people and they idolaters. No ; God can hiss for a baser people to punish
his own servants. It is the will of God so to dispose, and the will of God
is si<»tHm J»si<7/rt, the height of justice. God will have it so. Let us make
our peace with him, and not demand why he doth thus and thus.

* That is, ' Assyria.' Cf. Isa. x. 5.— O.

t Qu. ' what is good for us, better ' V — Ed.

88 THE saint's eefeeshing.

* And so they brought the king word again.' I will but touch this in a
word, and so make an end.

Here we see that the messengers deal faithfully with Josiah. They
brought the direct message which the prophetess did bid them, which was
good for himself, but doleful for his estate. He was a gracious man, and
God gave him gracious servants.

Doct. 13. For God icill give good men faithful servants, that shall deal
faithfully with them. As for the wicked, God will give them such servants
that shall humour them to their own ruin. If they have a heart not desirous
to hear the truth, if they be Ahabs, they shall have four hundred false pro-
phets to lead them in a course to their own ruin. But Josiah had an upright
heart, desiring to know the truth. Therefore God gave him a faithful pro-
phetess to deal truly with him, and faithful messengers to bring the true answer.

' Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and
Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the
men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the
Levites, and all the people great and small,' &c.

Which words shew what good king Josiah did upon the receipt of this
message. As soon as ever he heard it, he did not suffer it to cool upon
him. But when his spirit was stirred up, he did as a gracious king
should do, he sent and gathered all the elders of Judah, and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, both great and small, and they went up to the house of the
Lord, and there read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant
which was found in the house of the Lord.

Here, first, we see that Josiah gathered, as it were, a parliament and
a council ; as also, in both Josiah and the people, we may behold an
excellent and sweet harmony of state, when all, both king and priests,
Levites and people, did meet amiably together. This was an excellent time,
when there was such an harmony between king and people, that he no
sooner commands but they obeyed him.

But more particularly we learn,

Doct. 14. That the care of the comvwmcealth and of the church is a duty
helongiiig to the king, that the reformation both of church and common-
wealth belongs unto the prince. There is a generation which think
that the king must only take care for the commonwealth. But they
have also power to look to religion. We see Josiah doth it, he is the keeper
of both. Josiah hath a care of religion, and it doth become his place. He
is a head, and it is befitting his relation. He is a father, not only to look
to the temporal state, but to the church.

The Donatists in Augustine's time did ask. What had the emperor to do
with the church ? But it was answered that the emperor could not rule
the commonwealth except he govern the church, for the church is a com-
monwealth. So that we see, as a chief right, the ordering of the matters
of religion belongs to the care of the prince. But there are two things in
religion : first, intrinsecal, within the church, as to preach, administer the
sacraments, and ordain ministers. These he ought not to do. But for
those things that are without it, these belong unto him. If any of those
that are placed in church or commonwealth, do not their duty, it is fitting
for him to correct. He ought to set all a-going without, and to remove
abuses, but not to meddle with the things within the church aforesaid, as
to execute the same, but to oversee and govern their execution, and those
persons whose proper office it is to execute them.

This observe against the usurpation of the pope, and see the supremacy

THE SAINT S EEFEESHING.

of king Josiali, that he is supreme over all ; not only over temporal persons,
but over evangelical persons. For there was an high priest at that time
and the Levites, but none were above king Josiah.

Quest. Aj, but this was under the law, say the papists.

Sol. 1. I answer, that this is a rule in divinity, that the gospel doth not
take away or dissolve the laws of nature and reason. Therefore if the
supremacy belonged to the prince then, surely now much more. Therefore
saith one. We give respect to the emperor as next to God ; to God in the
first place, and then to the emperor,* The ministers have power over the
prince for to direct him and give him counsel, but yet they are not above
him. A physician doth give directions for his patient. Is he therefore
above him ? So a builder giveth direction for the building of the king's
house. Is this any supremacy ? So the minister may give direction and
counsel to the prince ; but hath he therefore any superiority above the
prince ? Surely no.

Sol. 2. In the second place, here we see who it is that called this parlia-
ment. It was king Josiah. He was the first mover in calling of this
council, for he was the head ; and had it not been a strange thing
to have seen the foot move before the head ? The head must first give
direction before any of the members can move. Therefore it is only in the
authority of the king to gather a council, and none must gather a public
assembly without authority from the king.

The calling of assemblies belongs to the prince. If it be a general
council, then it must be by the emperor ; if it be a national council, then
by the king or prince of that nation ; if provincial, then first from the kmg
or princes, as first movers of it, and so to others. As the heavens, and
these celestial bodies over the earth, first move, and then all other after-
ward, so kings ought first to move, and then all to follow.

Use 1. If this be so, we see how the pope wrongfully takes this right of
calling councils to himself, which properly belongs to the emperor ; for we
know that for a thousand years after Christ the emperor called councils, if
any were. But of late years the pope, encroaching upon the emperor, hath
usurped this right of calling them, whenas you see no assemblies ought to
be gathered without the authority of the prince.

Though fasting be an excellent thing, yet public fasting must not be
without the consent of the king. Let Christians have as much private
fasting as they will, thereby to humble themselves, but public fasts must
not be without the consent of the king ; for great matters are to be done
by great motions. Here is a great matter of gathering a council. There-
fore the head and body and all join together. As it is when the body is
to do some great thing, all the members of the body stir together to do it,
so it is with the commonwealth. When great matters are in hand, all
must be joined together, as here king, priests, Levites, and all the people,
both great and small, joined together for to prevent the judgment
threatened.

But what must we do if things be amiss ? I answer. Take the right
course ; that is, go to God by prayer, and entreat him who hath the hearts
of kings in his hands, to incline and stir up the hearts of princes for to
reform abuses. Well, but what did the king do when he had gathered all
the elders and inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem into the house of the
Lord ? They went up thither to fast, and pray, and read the book of the
law.

* Tertullian. Cf. Apology, c. xxxiii. to xxxvi. — G.

90 THE saint's kefkeshing.

Eeformation makes all outward things fall into a good rule, but they are
to be called only by the authority of the prince, and when a fit time and
occasion requires.

The papists brag much of the Council of Trent ; but if ever there was a
conspiracy against Christ, it was in that council ; for the parties that had
most oflended, and were most accused, and should have been judged, were
the judges ; and the Holy Ghost, which should have been in the council,
and should have been their judge, him they excluded, and received a foul
spirit of antichrist sent unto them, in a cap- case* from Rome, whence they
had all their counsel. Was not this a goodly council ?

Again, In that Josiah gathered a council in time of public disorder and
public danger, here we learn that it is not only lawful, but many times
necessary, to gather assemblies and councils for reformation of abuses, both
in church and commonwealth, which otherwise cannot be abolished. So
councils are good to make canons, rules, and to prevent heresy ; yea, much
good may be done by gathering of them, if they meet to a good end, for
the good of the church, and the glory of God; for God who is willing and
able to perform the good will be strongly amongst them. For if Christ by
his Spirit hath promised to be in that assembly, ' where two or three are
gathered together' upon good grounds, and to good ends, how much
more will he be, when two or three hundreds are so gathered together ?
But this must be done by the consent of authority, otherwise it would be
an impeachment to government. So much briefly for this text, and for
this time.
* That is, a small case or travelling-box. Cf. Nares and Halliwell sub voce. — G.

*;4* The frequent allusions in the preceding sermons, and throughout, to wars
and accompanying evils abroad, receive interpretation from ' The Thirty Years'
War,' which, beginning in 1618 and ending in 1648, was thus contemporary with
the whole of Sibbes's public life.— G.

THE SPIRITUAL FAVOURITE AT THE THRONE

OF GRACE.

THE SPIRITUAL FAVOURITE AT THE THRONE OF GRACE.

NOTE.

' The Spiritual Favourite ' forms a small volume (18mo). The title-page is given
below* Prefixed is a portrait of Sibbes, differing from the usual miniature one.
He holds a book in his hand ; and underneath, in engraved letters, is this inscription,
' The reverend, faithfull, and profitable Minister of Gods word, Eichard Sibbes, D:D :
master of Katherine Hall, in Cambridge, and preacher of Grayes Inne, London.'
The copy from which our reprint is taken is believed to be unique. I had searched for
it in all tlie 'public' libraries of the kingdom, and advertised through innumerable
channels, but utterly in vain ; nor could I hear of any one who had so much as seen
it, when, through the spontaneous kindness of W. E. Whitehouse, Esq., Birming-
ham, I was unexpectedly put in possession of it. It becomes me thus publicly and
cordially to acknowledge my obligation to Mr Whitehouse. G.

* THE

SPIKITVALL

FAVORITE

AT THE THRONE

OF GRACE.

By the late learned, and reve-
rend Divine Richard
S I B B s Doctor
in Divinity.

Published by tlie Authors owne

appointment, subscribed with his hand ;

to prevent unperfect Copies.

Proverbs 29. 26.
Many seelce the Rulers favour, but e-
very man's judgement commeth from the
Lord.

LONDON,

Printed by Thomas Paine, for

Ralph Mabb. 1640.

THE SPIEITFAL FAVOUEITE AT THE
THRONE OF GRACE.

Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy ser-
vant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name ; and
prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant hir)i mercy in, the sight
of this man. — Neh. I. 11.

In the ninth verse the holy man minds God of his promise made to his
people, that if they should ' turn unto him, and keep his commandments,
and do them, though they were cast out to the^ utmost parts of heaven,
yet he would gather them thence,' &c., ver. 9. ' I will touch a little on
them, [on the] two verses, and then come to that I mean to dwell on,
from the words read.

' If you turn unto me, and keep my commandments.' There is no pro-
mise of mercy but to those that turn. The Scripture is peremptory in
denial of mercy to such as go on in their sins. Heaven could not brook*
the angels themselves, having sinned ; and neither such, nor such ' shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven.' Yet how many are there that bless
themselves that it shall go well with them, though they cast off all God's
yokes and divine bonds, that might bow them to better courses, as if words
were but wind ; when we see here God made his word good against his
own dear people, * If ye sin, I will scatter you to the farthest parts of the
world,' ver. 8. We see in the former verse, ver. 7, a proud, presumptuous
sinful disposition may slight God, and the messengers of the word and all,
now when we come to threaten ; but when God comes to execute, will he
shake it off then ? Will swearers and blasphemers and filthy persons shake
off the execution as they can the threatenings ? God saith, none that are
such shall enter into heaven, ' but his wrath shall smoke against them, and
shall bo as a fire that shall burn to hell,' against such persons as ' bless
themselves' in wicked courses, Deut. xxix. 20 ; and when God comes to
the execution, they desire ' the mountains to fall upon them,' Rev. vi. IG.
There are none more presumptuous against the threatenings, and none
more base and fearful when it comes to execution. As we see in presump-
tuous and profane Belshazzar, that was quafiing in ' the bowls of the tem-
ple,' and scorning religion and God, when there comes a handwriting on
the wall, ' his knees knock together and his joints tremble,' Dan. v. 6. So
* That is, = ' suffer, enduro.'— G.

D4 THE SPIEITUAL FAVOURITE

let there be any evidence of execution, and we see all the tyrants in the
book of God, and that have been in the world, that have trifled at religion,
of all men they are most disconsolate and fearful, as we see in Belshazzar
and others.

I beseech you therefore take heed. God will seal all his threatenings
with executions in due time, as he did to his own people. What is the rea-
son we should promise ourselves more immunity than they had ?

' If ye turn and keep my commandments, and do them.' Here are three
conditions. ' Though you were cast to the utmost parts of the world, I
will gather you thence,'

' If you turn.' The holy man Nehemiah puts God in mind of his pro-
mise, and his argument is from the like, and indeed from the less to the
greater. Because God would rather of both, perform his promises than his
threatenings, because mercy is his own proper work. Now, as he had
been just in punishing his people, so he would be merciful in restoring of
them again ; therefore he saith, ' Return and keep my commandments and
do them, and though ye were scattered to the utmost parts of the earth,
yet I will gather you thence.' And he did gather them thence upon their
repentance ; he did perform his promise at length.

Beloved, the full accomplishment of this yet remains ; for this people to
this day, since the death of Christ, since they drew the guilt of that sacred
blood on them, they are scattered about the earth to every nation, and
have not a foot of land of their own, but are the scorn and hissing of
nations. Notwithstanding, this promise will be performed. Upon their
repentance, God will bring them again. As St Paul calls it a kind of a resur-
rection, the conversion of the Jews, so it is true of us all. Though we were
scattered as dust, as we shall be in the grave ere long turned to dust, God
will gather the ashes ; he will gather all those parts of ours. Even as his
power gathereth his people together, so his power at length will gather us
all. We have his promise for the one as well as the other.

Therefore let us comfort ourselves with the performance of this promise,
for the performance of the grand promise of the resurrection. Indeed, the
grand promise of the resurrection is the ground of the performance of all
other promises. As you have it in Ezekiel, concerning the dry bones :
saith God, ' I will cloihe these dead bones with flesh and skin,' &c., ' there-
fore I will restore you again,' Ezek. xxxvii. 1, seq. God that will restore
our dust and bring our bodies together, that were scattered here and there,
he will restore us out of our sickness and trouble, if it stand with his glory
and our good.

Now, after the argument that he useth to persuade God from his word
of threatening and promise, he comes to the argument from their relation.

! * These are thy servants.'

'' Though sinful servants, yet they are thy servants. * These are thy
people.' Thou hast no other people in the world but these, and ' thou art
their God.' He pleads from former favours. ' Thou hast redeemed them
by thy great power and strong hand.'

It is a good argument to plead with God for former favours : because

' there is no shadow of change in him,' James i. 17 ; he is always like

himself; he is never drawn dry. And it is a great honour to go to him

for new favours upon former, because he hath an infinite supply. We may

raw so much from men as they have not afterwards to make good, but

e cannot honour God more than to go to him with a large faith, to fetch

AT THE THRONE OF GRACE. 95

large favours from him. The more he gives, the more he can give, and
the more he is willing to give. * To him that hath shall be given,' Mat.
xiii. 12. We cannot honour God more than to go to him upon former
favours and with enlarged desires. * Thou hast redeemed us, and been
gracious to us before,' Ps. cvii. 2.

We may much more take this argument in our mouths, and press the
majesty of God. ' Thou hast redeemed us,' not out of Egypt or Babylon,
the land of the north, but ' with the blood of thy Son,' from hell and dam-
nation ; and therefore thou canst redeem us from this petty misery, from
these enemies. We may allege that grand favour to all other petty redemp-
tions, whatsoever they are. He that hath given us Christ, that ' hath not
spared his own Son, but gave him to death for us all, how shall he not
with him give us all things else ? Rom. viii. 32. He that hath been so
large and bountiful as to give us his own Son, that gift to admiration* —

* So God loved the world,' John iii. 16 — how cannot we plead with him for
all other favours whatsoever, whether they concern the life of grace or glory,
or our present condition while we live in this world ? We may plead it
much more I say, * Thou hast redeemed us.' But these things I will not
press further now.

In the eleventh verse he comes to press it still, and repeats that which
he had said before, * Lord, I beseech thee, let thine ear be attentive to the
prayer of thy servant, and of thy servants that desire to fear thy name.'

* Let thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servants.' It is a prayer ;
and thou art * a God hearing prayer.' They be thy servants, and thou
regardest thy servants. Here are but a few petitions in this large request :

* remember,' ♦ be attentive,' and ' give me favour.' The most of the prayer
is spent in a preparative considering the attributes of God, and in confession
and strong reasons from the word, of promises and threatenings, and from
their relation ; and then he makes good the relation, < We are thy servants,
because we desire to fear thy name.'

To shew that indeed :

: It is an excellent skill and art in prayer, to have strong arguments.
'" Then the suit comes off easily, as in Ps. xc. It is a prayer of Moses,
the man of God ; and yet the least part of the psalm is prayer : ' Teach
us to number our days,' &c., ver. 12. That is all the petition. Though
the petition be short, yet it is efficacious, when the heart is warmed and
strengthened with strong reasons before ; when the heart is elevated and
raised with the consideration of the majesty and the truth of God ; and
when the heart is strengthened with strong convincing reasons, that God
will hear when we press him with his word ; I say, when the heart is thus
raised and warmed, all the petitions come easily off.

Therefore, it is an excellent thing, beloved, to study the Scriptures, and
to study all the arguments whereby holy men have prevailed with God in
Scripture ; and to see in what case those arguments were used. They are
of use and force to prevail with God.

It is a pitiful thing now, for Christians under the glorious light of the
gospel, to come to God only with bare, naked petitions (if they come from
a true heart, they have their force that God should regard them), and have
not reasons to press God out of his own word. They cannot bind God
with his own promise, nor with arguments that he hath been bound with
before. Let a child but cry to the father or mother, there is relief pre-
^ That is, 'wonder.' — G.

96 THE SPIKITUAX, FAVOURITE

sently for the very cry (a). But if it be not one that is a child, but is of
grown years, the father looks for arguments that are moving to press him
with. So here, Nehemiah he presseth God with moving and strong argu-
ments, and he repeats and forceth them. He doth not only allege them,
but enforceth them : ' Lord, I beseech thee, let thine ear be attent to
the prayer of thy servant, and of thy servants that desire to fear thy name.'

He desireth God to be ' attentive.' He presseth God ; and indeed he
doth it to warm his own heart, for when we have humbled our heart low
enough, and broken it with the consideration of our own unworthiness, and
then warmed it with the consideration of God's goodness, and strengthened
it with the consideration of God's promise and truth, then we are sure of
a gracious success.

' Let thine ear be attent to the prayer of thy servant, and of thy servants.'

How did they know that they ivere thine ?

Because there was no other people in the world that knew God but
they. And he knew that the saints, wherever they were, had a spirit of
prayer, and would remember the case of the church. Therefore he saith,
remember ' my prayer and the prayer of thy servants.' For if ' the prayer
of one righteous man prevailethmuch,' James, v. 16, much more the prayer
of many. If there had been but ten righteous in Sodom, Sodom had been
preserved. Now this he allegeth to God, ' remember the prayer of thy
servant,' of mine, and the prayer of thy servants. As TertuUian, an ancient
father, saith very well, ' When men join together, they offer a holy kind of
violence to God' (b). Prayer is a kind of wrestling and contending with
God, a striving with him. ' Let me alone,' saith God to Moses, Exod.
xxxii. 10. It is a binding of him with arguments and promises of his own,
and it is so forcible, that he desires, as it were, to be let alone. Now, if
the prayer of one be a wrestling, and striving, and forcing of him, as it
were, against his will, that he said, ' Let me alone,' as if he could do
nothing except he gave over praying, what are the prayers of many, when
there is a multitude of them ?

Therefore we may look for a comfortable issue of our prayers and humi-
liation that is performed at this time.* The desires of so many Christian
souls touched with the Spirit of God, and with the case of the church,
which God doth tender,f cannot be ineffectual. It must needs draw plenty
of blessings from heaven. I will not enter into the commonplace of prayer,
having spoken of it upon another occasion ; but surely you see the holy man
Nehemiah stood so much upon it, that he hoped to speed, because he and
others prayed : holy Daniel, and others with him. It was such a gracious
messenger to send to heaven for help and for all good, that Daniel, though
it cost him his life, that he should be cast into the lion's den, he would not
omit it for his life. Take away prayer, and take away the life and breath
of the soul. Take away breath and the man dies ; as soon as the soul of
a Christian begins to live he prays (c). As soon as Paul was converted,
'Behold he prayeth,' Acts ix. 10. A child, as soon as he is born, he cries,
and a Christian will not lose his prayer for his life, as we see in holy
Daniel. For what is all the comfort that he hath, but that that is derived
from God ? and God will be sued untp for all the favours he bestows.
Whatsoever is from his favour, it comes as a fruit of prayer for the most
part. Though he go beyond our desires many times, yet ordinarily, what
we have if we be his children, we have it as a fi'uit of prayer. Therefore,

* A ' National Humiliation ' by royal proclamation' — G.
t That is, = ' care for,' regard. — G.

AT THE THKONE OF GRACE. 97

I beseech you, let us be stirred up to this duty, as we see Nehemiah here :
* Remember the prayer of thy servant,' &c.

And when we pray to God, let us press him, as we see here, ' Be atten-
tive,' verse 6, and here again, ' be attentive.' He presseth upon God. It
is no sinful tautology to come again and again. God loves to hear the
same song again and again. This music is not tedious but pleasing to him.
And this pressing is for us to warm our hearts ; perhaps one petition will
not warm them, and when they are warmed by a second, let us labour to
warm them more and more, and never give over till we have thoroughly
warmed our hearts. 'Be attentive, be attentive to my prayer;' and if
mine will not prevail, be attentive to the prayers of others ; let the prayers
of all prevail — ' the prayer of thy servant, and of thy servants.'

But how doth he make it good, they are thy servants ?

* They desire to fear thy name.'

Empti/ relations have no comforts in them : to profess one's self a servant,
and not to make it good that he is a servant. We must make good the
relation we stand in to God, before we can claim interest in the favour of
God by our relation. Servants, and Christians, and professors — here are
glorious titles ; but if they be empty titles, if we cannot make them good
when we come to God with them, — we cannot say we have any interest
in God from empty titles, — it is rather an aggravation of our sin.

God will be honoured in all those that come near him, either in their
obedience, or in their confusion. Therefore here the holy man did not
think it enough to say, * Thy servant, and thy servants, but who desire to
fear thy name.'

He goes to make it good that he was the servant of God, not from any
outward thing, but from his inward disposition, * the fear of God,' which I
will not now stand to speak largely of. God requires the heart ; and reli-
gion is most in managing and tuning the affections, for they are the wind
that carries the soul to every duty. A man is like the dead sea without
affections. Religion is most in them. The devil hath brain enough, he
knows enough, more than any of us all. But then he hates God. He hath
no love to God, nor no fear of God, but only a slavish fear. He hath not
this reverential fear, childlike fear. Therefore let us make it good that
we are the servants of God, especially by our affections, and chiefly by this
of fear, which is put for all the worship of God. It is put instead of those
conditions spoken of verse the 9th, ' If you turn to me, and keep my com-
mandments, and do them,' then I will make good my promise. Now, saith
he, taking up the same strength of argument, ' We desire to fear thy
name.' As if he should have said, we turn to thee and obey thy command-
ments, and desire to do them. It is all one. * We desire to fear thy
name,' for those that fear God will turn to him ; and to desire to obey his
commandments and to do them, it is all one as to do them. If a man
should do them, and not from the fear of God, all were nothing but a
carcase of obedience. I will not stand longer on that.

How doth he make it good that he feared the name of God ?

He makes it good from this, that he had good desires. * We desire
to fear thy name.' We desire it for the present, and for the time to
come ; whence we will observe two or three things shortly, as may be
useful to us. First of all, out of this, that this desire to fear the name
of God is brought as an argument to prevail in prayer, we may observe
that,

VOL. VI. Q

98 THE SPIRITUAL FAVOURITE

Those that tvill jjrevail with God in jjrayer, must look to the bent of their
souls for the time to come, and for the present.

' Eegard thy servants that desire to fear thy name.' For to come to God
without such a frame of soul as this, to desire to please God in all things
for the present, and for the time to come, it is to come as God's enemy ;
and will God regard his enemies ? When one comes with a purpose to live
in any sin, without a desire for the time to come, to regard all God's com-
mandments, he comes as God's enemy, he comes as it were with his dagg*
to shoot at God, he comes with his weapon. "Who will regard the petition
of a man that comes to wound him at the same time ? "When a man comes
to God with a purpose to sin, he comes to wound God at the same time, as
an enemy, and is he like to speed ? For what are our sins, but that that
makes us enemies to God ? They are opposite to him as can be, they
make us hateful to God. Therefore we must be able to say with good
Nehemiah, when we come to God, to make it good that we are servants
indeed, ' JVe desire to fear thy name.' As Jeremiah tells them, Jer. vii. 10,
' "Will you steal, and oppress, and commit adultery, and yet stand before
me ?' "Will you do this and this villany, and stand before me ? ' What
hast thou to do,' saith God, Ps. 1. 16, seq., ' to take my name into thy
mouth, and hatest to be reformed ?' If we hate to be reformed, and do not
desire to serve God for the time to come, what have we to do to take his
name into our mouths, especially in the holy exercise of prayer ? Ps.
Ixvi. 18, ' If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my
prayer.' If a man do but regard to live in iniquity for the time to come,
the Lord will not hear his prayer. Therefore, if we will be able to prevail
with God in our petitions, we must say with holy Nehemiah, * We desire
for the time to come to fear thy name.' I beseech you, let us remember it.

And then, to omit other things, ' we desire to fear thy name,' we see that

JReliriion especially is in holy desires.

The greatest part of Christianity is to desire to be a sound Christian with
all his heart. Religion is more in the affections of the soul than in the
effects and operations. It is more in the resolutions and purpose of the
soul, than in any effects we can yield to God. There is much desire in all
our performances. Therefore saith the holy man here, ' We desire to fear
thy holy name.'
^ Why are desires such trials of the truth of grace ?

Because they are the immediate issues of the soul. Desires and thoughts,
and such like, they are produced immediately fi'om the soul, without any
help of the body, or without any outward manifestation. They shew the
temper and frame of the soul. Thereupon God judgeth a man by his
desires ; and that which he desires, if it be a true desire, he shall have and
be partaker of. The godly man desires to serve God all the days of his
life, and for ever he shall do it. A wicked man desires to offend God if
he might hve everlastingly. God looks upon him as his desire is. He
shall not alway sin here ; but because he hath an infinite desire of sin, he
shall be punished in hell eternally. God looks upon him as he desires.
God values men by their desires.

But how are the truth of these desires known ?

I will name a few signs. The truth of those desires may be tried thus :

1. If they be constant desires and not flashes ; for then they come from a

* That is, = pistol. Cf. Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaisms and Provincialisms,
sub voce, 2 vols. 4to, 1852. — G.

AT THE THRONE OF GRACE.

new nature. Nature is strong and firm. Art is for a turn to serve a turn.
When men personate a thing, they do it not long. Creatures that are
forced to do so and so, they return to their own nature quickly ; but when
a man doth a thing naturally, he doth it constantly. So, constant desires
argue a sanctified frame of soul and a new creature. They argue that the
image of God is stamped upon the soul. Thereupon we may know that
they are holy desires, that they spring from a holy soul, if they be constant,
if they be perpetual desires, and not as a torrent that is vented foe the
present on a sudden, and then comes to nothing after. They are constant.

2. And likewise, if these desires be hearty, strong desires ; and not only
strong, but gromng desires — desire upon desire, desire fed with desire still,
never satisfied till they be satisfied. Strong and growing desires argue the
truth of desires ; as indeed a child of God hath never grace enough, never
faith enough, never love enough, or comfort enough, till he come to heaven.
They are growing desires more and more. The Spirit of God, that is the
spring in him, springs up still further and further, till it spring to ever-
lasting life, till it end in heaven, where all desires shall be accomplished,
and all promises performed, and all imperfections removed. Till then
they are growing desires still. ' We desire to fear thy name,' and to please
thee in all things.

3. Again, True desires, they are not only of the favour of God, hut of graces
for the altering of our nature] as Nehemiah here, he desires not the favour
of God so much as he desires to fear God's name. Now when desire is of
graces, it is a holy desire. You have not the worst men but would desire,
with Balaam, ' to die the death of the righteous,' &c.. Numb, xxiii. 10,
that they might enjoy the portion of God's people. But to desire grace,
that is opposite to corrupt nature as fire and water, this is an argument of
a holy principle of grace in us, whence this desire springs, when we desire
that that is a counter poison to corrupt nature, that hath an antipathy to
corruption. Therefore, when a man from the bottom of his heart can
desire. Oh that I could serve God better ! that I had more liberty to serve
him ! that I had a heart more enlarged, more mortified, more weaned from
the world ! Oh that I could fear God more ! And of all graces, if it be a
true desire, it is of such graces as may curb us of our sinful delights, and
restrain us of our carnal liberty, and knit us near to God, and make us
more heavenly-minded. The desire of these graces shew a true temper of
soul indeed.

4. True desire is carried to grace as xvell as glory, and the desire of heaven
itself. A true spirit that is touched with grace, with the Spirit of God, it
desireth not heaven itself so much for the glory, and peace, and abundance
of all contentments, as it desires it, that it is a place where it shall be freed
from sin, and v/here the heart shall be enlarged to love God, to serve God,
and to cleave to God for ever, and as it is a condition wherein he shall
have the image and resemblance of Jesus Christ perfectly upon his soul.
Therefore we pray, * Thy kingdom come ;' that is, we desire that thou
wouldst rule more and more largely in our souls, and subdue all opposite
power in us, and bring into captivity all our desires and affections ; and let
' Thy kingdom come' more and more. ' Let thy will be done by us,' and
in us more and more, ' in earth as it is in heaven.' Here is a sweet prayer
now serving to the first petition, the hallowing of God's name, when we
desire more to honour God, and to that purpose that he may rule in us
more and make us better. These desires argue an excellent frame of soul ;
as we see in Nehemiah, ' our desire is to fear thy name.'

100 THE SPIKITUAL FAVOURITE

5. True desires are likewise to the means of salvation, and to the means
of salvation as they convey grace, as sincere milk ; as you have it, 1 Pet.
ii. 2, ' As new-horn habes, desire the sincere milk of the word.' Where a
man hath holy desires of any grace, and hath them in truth, he will desire
those means whereby those graces may most effectually be wrought in his
heart. Therefore he will hear the word as the word of God. He comes
not to hear the word because of the eloquence of the man that delivers it,
that mingles it with his own parts. He comes not to hear it as the tongue
of man ; but he sees God in it. It is the powerful word of God, because
there goes the efficacy of the Spirit with it to work the graces he desires.

Therefore a man may know by his taste of divine truth whether he desire
grace. He that desires grace desires the means that may convey grace,
and especially so far as they convey grace, ' As new-born babes, desire
the sincere milk of the word.' You cannot still a child with anything but
milk. He desires no blending or mixing, but only milk. So a true Chris-
tian desires divine truths most, because the Spirit of God is effectual by
them to work grace and comfort in him. I will not enlarge myself in the
point.

Use. The comfortable observation hence is this, that weak Christians that
Jind a debility, andfaintness, and feebleness in their 2)erfonnances, hence they
may comfort themselves by their desire to fear God, and to worship God,
and to serve him, if their desires be true. Therefore, in Isaiah xxvi. 8, the
church allegeth it to God, ' In the way of thy judgments have we sought
thee,' &c. ' The desire of our souls is towards thy name.' They bring it
as a prevailing argument to God. So when we come to God, ' The desire
of our souls is toward thy name.' Lord, our endeavours are weak and
feeble, but ' the desire of our souls is to thy name,' and ' thou wilt not quench
the smoking flax,' Mat. xii. 20. Therefore we come to thee with these
weak and poor desires that we have. ' The Lord will fulfil the desires of
them that fear him,' Ps. cxlv. 19, if they be but desires, if they be true,
and growing, and constant desires, and desires of grace as well as of happi-
ness, as I shewed before.

The reason why God accepts them is partly because they spring from his
own Spirit. These desires they are the breathings of the Spirit. For even
as it is in places where fountains and springs are digged up, they are known
and discovered by vapours ; the vapours shew that thei'e is some water
there, some spring, if it were digged up. So these desires, these breath-
ings to God for grace and comfort, these spiritual breathings, they shew
that there is a spring within and Spirit within, whence these vapours and
desires come. Therefore they are accepted of God, because they spring
from his own Spirit.

And because they are jiointed to heavenivard , to shew that a man is turned
for it is put here instead of turning, ' Turn ye to me, saith the Lord,' ver. 9
and he answereth here instead of turning, ' My desire is to fear thy name,
because, when the desire is altered, then the frame of the soul is altered,
a man is turned another way. The desire is the weight of the soul. What
carries the soul but desire ? Now, when the soul is carried another way
than before, it argues an alteration of the frame ; therefore it pleaseth God
to accept of them.

I beseech you, let us often enter into our own souls, and examine what
our desires are, which way the bent of our souls is ; what cause we would
have to flourish and prevail in the world, Christ's or antichrist's ; for God
esteems us by the frame of our desires. * Who desire to fear thy name.'^

AT THE THRONE OF GRACE.

101

, • And prosper, I pray tliee, thy servant this day.'

' Now he comes to his petition, ' Prosper, I pray thee, thy servant thi3
day.' He doth not capitulate* with God for particular matters much—
for he knew he had to deal with an all-wise God,— but he commends his
petition in general, ' Prosper, I pray thee, thy servant,' &c. He was to
attend the king, and he was in his attendance to mind the state of the
church, for the re-edifying the walls and gates of Jerusalem. Now saith
he in general, 'Prosper thy servant.' He leaves it to God how and in
what manner, being to deal, as I said, with an infinite wise God ; only ho
prays in general, ' Prosper thy servant this day.'

He comes again with his relation of ' servant,' to teach us alway when
we come to God to look in what relation we stand to him, whether we be
true servants or no, what work we do for him, in what reference we do
what we do ; whether we do it to please him as servants or no. I said
something of the relation of servant before. I will add a little here, because
he repeats it four or five times in this short prayer.

In all our services we should look to God ; for our aim in our works
shew what they are, whether they come from servants or np. As the stamp
upon a token makes it, if there be a good stamp on it ; it is not the matter
that makes it current. A stamp on silver makes it current as well as gold,
though the metal of gold be better. So when things are done, because God
commands them, to please God, as a service to him, this makes it good
that we are servants indeed, that the relation is good. When we go about
the service of the church or country, or place we live in, to think I do
God service here, and do it as a service to God, who will be honoured and
served in our service to others, herein I am a good servant. Though the
matter of my service be a common, base, and mean matter, yet it hath a
stamp upon it. It is God's will. God hath placed and planted me here,
and he will be served of me in this condition at this time, though the
matter of it be an ordinary thing. I know it may help the good of the
church. It hath reference to the will of God and the good of the church.
Thus if we do what we do with an eye to God in the place where he hath
set us, that we do it as to him, we are God's servants, whatsoever the
work is.

And let us remember oft to think of it, to bring it in our prayers.
* Master,' say they when they were ready to be drowned, ' dost thou not care
that we perish ? ' Mark iv. 38. They put him in mind of the relation they
were in to him. So when we can put God in mind of our relation—' Father,
we are thy children ;' ' Lord, we are thy servants'— it will strengthen our
faith and hope of all good. Will a master suffer his servant to miscarry
in his service ? Surely God will never turn away true-hearted servants
that have served him a long time. It puts us in mind of our duty, and
serves to strengthen our faith ; for as it is a word of service on our part,
so it is a promising word of all good from God. Doth he expect that
masters should be good to their servants because they have a Master m
heaven ? and will not the great Master of heaven be good to his servants .
You see how he follows the relation.

' Prosper thy servant this day.'

What is included in this word 'prosper?' n ^i, f

It includes not only success, which is the main upshot of all_, but all that
tends to good success. ' Prosper thy servant this day ;' that is, direct thy
* That is, = ' make terms,'— G.

102

THE SPIRITUAL FAVOURITE

servant this day how to do and to carry himself. And likewise assist thy
servant. AVhen thou shalt direct him, assist him by thy strength, direct
him by thy wisdom, prosper him with thy grace, give him good success in
all. It includes direction, and assistance, and good success. In that he
saith, ' prosper thy servant,' it includes these things.

First of all, that in ourselves there is neither direction, nor wisdom, nor
ahilitij enough for success. We have not power in ourselves to bring things
to a comfortable issue. So it enforceth self-denial, which is a good disposi-
tion -when we come to God in praj^er.

2. And then again, to attribute to God all, both wisdom, and strength,
and goodness, and all. Here is a giving to God the glory of all, when he
saith, ' Prosper thy servant this day.'

3. Then in the third place, here is a dependence xipon God ; not only
acknowledging these things to be in God, but it implies a dependence upon
God for these : ' Prosper me. Lord.' I cannot prosper myself, and thou
who art the Creator hast wisdom, and strength, and goodness enough.
Therefore I depend upon thee, upon thy wisdom for direction, and upon
thy strength for assistance. I depend upon thy goodness and all for a
blessed issue. Here is dependence.

4. Again, in the fourth place, here is a recommendation of all hy prayer ;
a recommendation of his inward dependence upon God for all. Now, Lord,
' prosper thy servant.'

So that when we come to God for any prosperity and good success, let
us remember that we bring self-denial, and an acknowledgment of all excel-
lency to be in God, to guide, and direct, and assist, and bless us. And
remember to depend upon him, to cast ourselves on him, to bring our
souls to close with the strong, and wise, and gracious God, that God and
our sonls may close together. And then commend all by prayer ' to cast
ourselves and our aifairs, and to roll ourselves,' as the Scripture saith, and
all upon God, Ps. Iv. 22 ; and then we shall do as the holy man Nehemiah
did here, we shall desire to good purpose that God would ' prosper us.'
Indeed, ' it is not in man to guide and direct his own way,' Jer. x. 23,
We are dark creatures, and we have not wisdom enough. And we are
weak creatures. We have no strength. We are nothing in our own
strength. And for success, alas ! a thousand things may hinder us from
it. For success is nothing but the application of all things to a fit issue,
and foreseeing all things that may hinder, and a removing of them. Now
who can do this but God ?

One main circumstance that besiegeth and besets a business may hinder
an excellent business. Who can see all things that beset a business ? all
circumstances that stand about a business ? Who can see all circumstances
of time, and place, and persons, that are hindrances or furtherances ? It
must be an infinite wisdom that must forsee them ; man cannot see them.
And when men do see them, are there not sudden passions that come up
in men, that rob them of the use of their knowledge ? that though they
know them before, yet some sudden passion of fear or anger may hinder
the know^ledge of a man, that he is in a mist when he comes to particulars.
When he comes to apply the knowledge that he had before, he knows not
what to do. So that unless God in a particular business give success, who
is infinitely wise and powerful to remove all hindrances, there will be no
success.

As it is in the frame of the body, it stands upon many joints ; and if any
be out of tune, the whole body is sick. And as it is in a clock, all the

AT THE THRONE OF GRACE. 103

wheels must be kept clean and in order, so it is in the frame of a busi-
ness. There must all the wheels be set a-going ; if one be hindered, there
is a stop in all. It is so with us in the affairs of this world. When we
deal with kings and states, if all the wheels be not kept as they should,
there will be no success or prosperity. Nehemiah knew this well enough ;
' prosper thou therefore.'

He meant not to be idle when he said this, * prosper thou ;' for he after
joined his own diligence and waited. Therefore join that. If we would have
our prayers to God and our dependence upon him effectual for prosperity
and success, be careful to use the means as he did. He stands before the
king, and observed how he carried himself, to see what words would come
from the king, and then he meant after to put in execution whatsoever God
should discover.

Use. It should teach us to make this use of it, when we deal in any
matter, to go to God to prosper it, and give success, and direction, and assist-
ance, and a blessed issue. For God, that we may alway depend upon him,
he keeps one part in heaven still. When he gives us all likelihood of
things upon earth, yet he reserves still the blessing till the thing be done.
Till there be a consummation of the business, he keeps some part in heaven.
Because he would have us sue to him, and be beholding to him, he will
have us go up to heaven. Therefore, when we have daily bread, we must
pray for daily bread, because the blessing comes from him. Our bread
may choke us else. We may die with it in our mouths, as the Israelites
did. But when we have things, we must depend on him for a blessing ;
all is to no purpose else.

Let us learn by this a direction to piety and holy walking with God ; in
all things to pray to God for a blessing. And to that purpose we must be
in such a condition of spirit as we may desire God to prosper us ; that is,
we must not be under the guilt of sin when we come to God to prosper us.
And we must be humble. God will not prosper a business till we be
humble. As in the case of the Benjamites, when they came, they were
denied the first, second, and third time. Till they prayed and fasted, and
were thoroughly humbled, they had their suit denied, Judges xx. 3G, seq.
If the cause be never so good, till we be humbled, God will not prosper
it, because we are not in frame for the blessing ; if we had it, we would be
proud. God in preventing* mercy and care, will grant nothing till we be
humbled. Therefore let us see that we be humble, and see that the
matter be good that we beg God to bless and prosper us in, or else we make
a horrible idol of God. We make (with reverence be it spoken) a devil of
God. Do we think that God Avill give strength to an ill business ? This
is to make him a factor for mischief, for the devil's work. We must not
come with such ' strange fire ' before God, to transform God to the con-
trary to that he is ; but come with humble affections, with repentant souls
for our former sins. And let the thing itself be good, that we may come
without tempting of him ; let the cause be such that we may desire God's
assistance, without tempting of him, as we do when it is good and when we
come disposed. Then come with a purpose to refer all to his service. Lord, if
thou wilt bless me in this business, the strength and encouragement I have
by it, I M'ill refer it to thy further service. Let me have this token of love
from thee, that I have a good aim in all, and then I am sm-e to speed well.

' Prosper now thy servant.'

* That is, ' anticipating.' — (}.

104 THE SPIKITUAL FAVOUKITE

It is an excellent point, if I had time to stand on it. I beseecli you, let
it have some impression upon your hearts.

What is the reason that God blasts and brings to nothing, many excellent
endeavours and projects ? Men set upon the business of God, and of their
calHngs, in confidence of their wit* and pride of their own parts. They
carry things in the pride and strength of their parts. Men come as gods to
a business, as if they had no dependence upon him for wisdom, or direction,
or strength, v They carry things in a carnal manner, in a human manner, with
human spirits. Therefore they never find either success, or not good success.
Let us therefore commend all to God : ' Prosper thy servant.' Before he went
about the business, holy Nehemiah he sowed prayers in God's bosom, and
watered the seed with mourning ; as it is in this chapter, he mourned and
prayed. When this business was sown with prayers, and watered with
tears, how could he but hope for good success ! He mourned and prayed
to God, ' Hear thy servant.'

Now when we deal with things in a holy manner, we may, without tempt-
ing God, trust him. That which is set upon in carnal confidence and pride,
it ends in shame ; when men think to conceive things in wit, ay, and in
faction and human affections, God will not be glorified this way. God will
be glorified by humble dependent creatures, that when they have done the
business, will ascribe all to him. ' Not unto us, but to thy name give
the praise,' Ps. cxv. 1. The direction and assistance and blessing was
thine. Saith God in Isa. 1., towards the end, ver. 11, * Go to now, ye that
kindle a fire, walk in the light of your own fire : but be sure you shall end
in sorrow.' You will kindle a fire of your own devices, and walk in the
light of your fire ; you will have projects of your own, and be your own
carvers : but be sure you shall lie down in darkness and discomfort, you
shall lie down in sorrow.

A proud unbroken heart accounts these poor courses. It is but a course
of weak and poor spirits to pray and fast, and humble themselves to God,
and to fear God. Alas ! what are these ? These are weak courses. I
hope we have stronger parts and means to carry things. So they have a
kingdom in their brain. What is the issue of these vain men, when God
discovers all their courses to be vain at length, to be wind, and come to
nothing ? * Prosper now thy servant,' saith he.

Let us learn this lesson likewise. If we come to God in a particular
business, that we are not so confident in, to be pleasing to God, yet in
general to submit ourselves, ' Lord, prosper thy servant ; ' go before thy
servant ; let me deal in nothing against thy will ; direct me what is for
thy glory ; and not to prescribe or limit God. * Prosper thy servant this day.'

' And grant him mercy in the sight of this man.'

He comes more particularly to this request, ' Grant me mercy in the
sight of this man.' We see that

A Jcijif/ is a great organ or instrument to convey good things from God, the
King of kings, to men.

Therefore he prays that God would give him favour in the sight of the
king. For a king is the first wheel that moves all other wheels, and as it
were the sun of the commonwealth, or the first mover that moves all
inferior orbs. Therefore in heavenly wisdom he desires God to give him
fiivour with him ; for if he had that, the king could turn all the inferior
orbs to his pleasure. Indeed, it were a point worthy enlarging, but that
* That is, ' wisdom.' — G.

AT THE THRONE OF GEA.CE.

105

it is not so seasonable for this time, the time being already spent. You
see what great good God conveys by kings and princes. And when God
means to do good to a church or state, he raiseth up ' nursing fathers and
nursing mothers,' Isa. xlix. 23. He will raise up both kings and subordinate
Nehemiahs, excellent men, when he hath excellent things to do.

But the main thing here intended, which I will but touch, is, that con-
sidering they stand in such a subordination to God as to be instruments
to convey so much good or so much ill as they may, as it is said of
Jeroboam, they either cause others to sin or to worship God, therefore we
should do as good Nehemiah : he prays that he might find favour in his sight.

A wise and holy prayer ! He begins at the head ; he goes to the spring
of all good. Prayer is the messenger or ambassador of the soul. Being
the ambassador of the soul, it goes to the highest, to the King of kings
first ; to the Lord of lords first. It goes to the highest mover of all, and
then desires him to move the next immediate subordinate mover, that is,
the king, that he may move other orbs under him, that things may be
carried by a gracious sweet course to a blessed issue. Therefore the
observation hence is this, that when ive have to do anything idth great men,
with Icings, dx., however, begin with the King of kings, and do all in heaven
before we do it in earth ; for heaven makes the laws that earth is governed
by. Let earth conclude what it will, there will be conclusions in heaven
that will overthrow all their conclusions. Therefore in our prayers we
should begin with God, and desire him with earnest and fervent entreaties
that he would set all a-going, that he would set in frame these inferior
causes. And when we have gotten what we would in heaven, it is easy to
get in earth. Let us win what we desire in heaven at God's hands, and
then what an easy thing is it to work with princes and other governors in
state when we have gotten God once ! Hath not he ' the hearts of kings
in his hand as the rivers of water,' Prov. xxi. 1, to turn this way or that
there way ? As a skilful man derives water by this channel or by that,
as he opens a vent for the water, so God opens a way to vent the deliber-
ations and determinations of kings and princes, to run this way or that, to
this good or that, as he pleaseth. Therefore considering that there is an
absolute dependence of all inferior things from God, when we have to do
with kings or great men, let us always begin with prayer.

As Jacob, when he was to deal with Esau, he falls down and praj^s first ;
and when he had gotten of God by prayer, God, that makes ' even of
enemies friends,' he turned Esau's heart of an enemy to be a friend. And
God put into Jacob's heart a wise course to efiect this, as to ofl'er a pre-
sent, and to give him titles, ' My lord Esau,' &c.. Gen. xxxiii. 4. God,
when he will effect a thing amongst men, and hear the prayers that are
made to him for the favour of men, he will put into their hearts such ways
whereby they shall prevail with men, as Jacob did with Esau. So Esther,
before she goes to Ahasuerus, she got* in heaven first by prayer. When
she had obtained of God by prayer, how placable and sweet was Ahasuerus
to her ! So we see in other places of Scripture, when holy men have been
to deal with men, they began with God.

I beseech you therefore learn this point of Christian wisdom. If you
would speed well, — as we all desire to speed well in our business, — especially
those that have public employments, [this must be the course] that they
would pray to God, that hath the hearts of kings and princes in his
government and guidance, that he would make them favourable ; and not to
* Spelled ' gate,' ». e., gat. — G.

106

THE SPIRITUAL FAVOURITE

think to carry things in a violent course, for then God doth not usually
give that good success ; but to carry things in a religious course to the
King of heaven, and then to know in what terms to stand in all inferior
things as may stand with the wall of God in heaven.

If so be there be a dependence of all inferiors to God, then we must not
offend God, and go against conscience, for any, because he is ' King of
kings, and Lord of lords.' He doth not set up authority against himself,
to disarm and disable himself. He never went to set up gods under him,
to make him a cypher ; that he should make them gods, and God a man,
or nobody, to alter all the frame of things. He never meant to set up any
ordinance to nullify and make himself nobody. Therefore, I say, we ought
to pray to God for kings, that so in our obedience we may be sure to do
nothing against conscience for any creature. We must do all things that
possible can be, that may procure the favour, and ingratiate us, because it
is in vain to pray unless we use all possible means to win their favour ;
but if it cannot be upon good terms, then ' whether to obey God or man,
judge ye,' Acts v. 29. Aiid as the three young men, ' we take no thought
to answer in this matter ; our God can defend us if he will,' Daniel iii. 16.
And as Esther said, 'If I perish, I perish,' Esther iv. 16. When things
are clear, we are to be resolute, yet reserving due respect to God's
ordinance and to his lieutenant upon earth ; I say, always reserving due
respect, and using means to win favour, and also to use prayer.

Holy Nehemiah, he prays here ; and together with that, he attends upon
the king. As good Jacob observed Esau, so all good means must be used,
or else God will not bless our proceedings.

Remember that all inferior governors whatsoever, they are subordinate
and dependent, and therefore they must be regulated by a superior. They
are limited, they are deperKleut, they are derivative. They are dependent
upon God ; they are derived from him. Therefore, as the apostle saith
that ' servants must obey their masters in the Lord,' Eph. vi. 5, so we must
obey and do all * in the Lord.' That limitation must be always added ;
but reserving that, it is a good thing to pray that there may be favour from
the king, because it is of much consequence to bring business to a good
issue. And with prayer, there must be a using means to get favour, always
with this liberty, to do it so far as we can with preserving a good con-
science.

As they have a distinction among civilians, there is a parting with a
thing cumulative and privative : cumulative, that is, when we part with a
thing so as that we reserve the propriety ; * ])rivative, when we give away
the propriety and all. Now, so God parts with nothing below, as to strip
himself; but cumulative, he derives f authority to others, but reserves the
propriety to himself. Therefore we must obey them in him, and with
this limitation, as it may stand with his favour.

To draw to a conclusion in a word. You see here that any good Chris-
tian may be a good statesman in one good sense. What is that ? A good
Christian hath credit in heaven, and he hath a spirit of prayer, and his
prayer can set God on work ; and God can set the king on work ; and he
can set his subjects on work. Now, he that can prevail with God to pre-
vail with the gods upon earth here, surely such a man is a profitable man
in the state. And you know, God he can alter all matters, and mould all
things : it is but a word of his mouth. And what God can do, prayer can
do ; for prayer binds God, because it is the prayer of faith ; and faith, as it
* That is, property, ' possession.' — G. f That is, ' communicates,' bestows. — G.

AT THE THEONE OF GRACE.

107

were, overcomes God. Now, prayer is tlie flame of faith, the vent* of
faith ; and faith is a victorious, triumphant grace with God himself. If it
be any, it is Christians that can prevail with God for a blessing upon a
state. Then certainly there is no good Christian but is of excellent service
in the state. Though in particular perhaps he hath not policy, and wisdom,
and government, yet he hath God's ear to hear him, and he can pray to
God that God would make the king and other subordinate magistrates
favourable.

You see what great good a good man may do in a state. ' The innocent
man delivers the land,' as it is in Job sxii. 30. And the ' poor wise man
delivers the city,' as it is in Eccles. ix. 15. A few holy, gracious men, that
have grace and credit in heaven above, they may move God to set all things
in a blessed frame below. And surely if this holy means were used, things
would be better than they are ; and till this be used, we can never look for
the good success and issue of things that otherwise we may hope for.

Divers things might be spoken of the doctrinal part. I will give you
but a word of it. That God hath our hearts in his (jovernment, more than
u-e ourselves. I speak it to inform our judgment in a point of doctrine,
whether God foresee and determine of things below upon foresight,^ which
way they shall go ; or whether he foreordain that they shall go this way,
because he directs them thus : that is to make God, God indeed. He
determines that these things shall be, because he determines, in the series
and order of causes, to bring things to pass, and to guide kings, and princes,
and magistrates, and all, this way. Again, whether God hath set all men
at liberty, in matters of grace especially, that they may apply graceat their
liberty, which way they will ; and in foresight, which way they will apply
their liberty, to determine thus or thus of them. This is to make every
man's will a god, and to divest God of his honour, as if God could foresee
the inclination of the creature, without foresight that he meant to incline
it this way or that way.

Can God foresee any entity, any thing that hath a being in nature or
grace, without foresight to direct it this way or that way '? He cannot.
This is to make him no God. We see God hath the hearts of kings in his
power, and that is the ground of prayer for grace to them. Why should
we pray for them, if they could apply their own will which way they would ?
Why should we give thanks for that we have liberty to do this way or that
way ? It stops devotion, and petition, and thanksgiving, to say that the
creature hath liberty to apply itself, and God, seeing it would apply itself
thus, determined so. Oh no. We must go to God. He hath set down
an order and course of means ; and in the use of those means, desire him
to guide us by his good Spirit, to enlighten our understandings, toguide
our wills and affections by his Holy Spirit, because our hearts are in his
government more than our own. If it were needful to prove it, I could
prove it at large. If there had been such a liberty, good Nehemiah would
never have made this prayer. But God doth strangely put thoughts and
guide all, even of himself, as we may see excellently in the story of Esther.
I will give you but that example and instance. What a strange thing was
it that Ahasuerus could not sleep ; and when he could not sleep, to call for
the book, and then that he should read of Mordecai, and thereupon to
advance Mordecai. All this tended to the good of the church : it was a
strange thing. And so in other things. It is a strange thing that God
should put little thovghts and desires into great persons, and then follow
* That is, ' outlet,' = utterance.— G,

108 THE SPIEITUAL FAVOUPaTE AT THE THRONE OP GRACE.

it with this circumstance and that ; and so bring things to pass. All this
is from God. Except we hold this, that God rules all without, and espe-
cially the hearts of men, where it is his especial prerogative to set up his
throne, we shall never pray heartily or give thanks. And if we do pray
and give thanks, he will put thoughts into governors' minds, strange
thoughts and resolutions for the good of the church, that we could never
have thought of, nor could come otherwise, but from the great God of
heaven and earth. We shall see a strange providence concur to the good
of all. But I must leave the enlargement of these things to your own
thoughts and meditations.*

* Here is added, ' Imprimatur. Thomas Wykes. August 24. 1639.' — G.

NOTES.

(a) P. 96. — ' Let a child but cry to the father or mother, there is relief presently
for the very cry.' Tennyson has finely put this : —

' What am I ?
An infant crying in the night,
An infant crying for the light,
And with no language but a cry.' — In 3Iemoriam, liii.

(6) P. 96. — ' As Tertullian saith, ..." When men join together, they offer a holy
kind of violence to God."' In his ' Apology ' the sentiment is found, e.g., c. xxxix. :
' We are a body united in the profession of religion, in the same rites of worship,
and in the bond of a common hope. We meet in one place, and form an assembly,
that we may^ as it were, come before God in oneunited body, and so address him in prayer.
This is a violence which is well-pleasing to God.' Cf. Temple Chevallier's excellent
edition of the post-apostolical Letters and Apologies (8vo, 2d ed., 1851), in loc.

(c) P. 96. — ' Take away prayer, and take away the life and breath of the soul. Take
away breath, and the man dies ; as soon as the soul of a Christian begins to live, he
prays.' This recalls the beautiful hymn of James Montgomery —

• Prayer is the Christian's vital breath,

The Christian's native air,' &c. G.

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEEEE.

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEICER.

NOTE.

' The Successful Seeker' appeared originally in ' Evangelical Sacrifices' (4to.
1G40). Its separate title-page is given below.* For general title-page of the
volume, see Vol. V. page 156. G.

*THE
SVCCESSEFVLL

SEEKER.
In two Sermons, on
• Psalm E 27. 8.

The late Learned and Reverend Divine,

Rich. Sibbs.

Doctor in Divinity, Mr. of Katheeine Hall

in Cambridge, and sometimes Preacher

to the Honourable Society of

Grayes-Inne.

1 Cheon. 16. 11.
SeeTte yee the Lord, and his strength : seeke his face
continually.

LONDON,

Printed by T. B. for N. Bourne, at the Royall Exchange,

and R. Harford, at the guilt Bible in Queenes-head

Alley in Pater-noster-Row. 163Q.

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKEE.

Whe7i tJwu saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord,
will Yseek.—VB. XXVII. 8.

In the former verse, David begins a prayer to God, < Hear, Lord ; have
mercy upon me, and answer me.' This verse is a ground of that prayer,
' Seek ye my face,' saith God. The heart answers again, ' Thy face, Lord,
will I seek ;' therefore I am encouraged to pray to thee. In the words are
contained,

God's command and David's obedience.

' Seek my face ; thy face, Lord, will I seek.' God's warrant and David's
work answerable, the voice and the echo : the voice, ' Seek my face ; ' the
rebound back again of a gracious heart, ' Thy face. Lord, will I seek.'

' When thou saidst.' It is not in the original. It only makes way to
the sense. Passionate speeches are usually abrupt : ' Seek my face ;' ' thy
face. Lord, will I seek.' The first thing that I will observe from the
encouragement is, that,

Ohs. God shews himself to his iinderstandiny creature.

God begins you see, ' Seek my face.' He must open his meaning and
shew himself first. God comes out of that hidden light that he dwells in,
and discovers himself and his will to his creature, especially in the word.
It is our happiness now, that we know the mind and meaning of God.

AVhat is the ground of this ? What need God stoop thus ?

There is the same ground for it as that there is a God. These thincrs
go in an undivided knot, God : the reasonable, understanding creature ;
and religion, that ties that creature to God ; a discovery of* God what that
religion shall be.

For in the intercourse between God and man, man can do nothing
except he hath his warrant from God. It is extreme arrogance for man to
devise a worship of God. Do we think that God will sufi'er the creature to
serve him as he pleaseth ? No. That were to make the creature, which
is the servant, to be the master. It belongs to the master or lord to
appoint the service. What master or lord will be served according to the
liberty and wisdom and will of his servant ? And shall the great God of
heaven and earth be worshipped and depended upon as man pleaseth, or
from any encouragement from himself ? Shall not he design his own wor-
ship ? He that singles out his own work makes himself master in that.
* Tliat is, = ' l»j God.'— G.

112 THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER.

Therefore God begins with this command, ' Seek my face ;' and then the
heart answereth, ' Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' God must first discover his
mind, of necessity, to the creature.

Scriptures might be forced hence to shew the duty owing from the
creature, man, to God. For the creature must have a ground for what he
doth. It must not be will-worship, infringit, &c. It is a rule, it weakens
the respect of obedience that is done without a cause. Though a man doth
a good deed, yet what reason, what ground have ye for this ? And that we
may do things upon ground, God must discover himself; therefore he saith,
' Seek my face.'

It may be objected that everything proclaims this, to seek God. Though
God had not spoken, nor his word, every creature hath a voice to say,
' Seek God.' All his benefits have that voice to say, ' Seek God.' Whence
have we them ? If the creature could speak, it would say, I serve thy
turn that thou mayest serve God, that made thee and me. As the prophet
saith, the rod and chastisement hath a voice. ' Hear the rod, and him that
smiteth,' Micah vi. 9. Everything hath a voice. We know God's nature
somewhat in the creature, that he is a powerful, a wise, a just God. We
see it by the works of creation and providence ; but if we should know his
nature, and not his will towards us — his commanding will, what he will have
us do ; and his promising will, what he will do for us — except we have a
ground for this from God, the knowledge of his nature is but a confused
knowledge ; it serves but to make us inexcusable, as in Kom. i. 19, seq.,
it is proved at large. It is too confused to be the ground of obedience,
unless the wdll of God be discovered before ; therefore we must know the
mind of God.

And that is the excellency of the church of God above all other people
and companies of men, that we have the mind and will of God ; what he
requires of us by way of duty to him, and what he will do to us as a liberal
and rich God. These two things, which are the main, are discovered ; what
we look for from God, and the duty we owe back again to God, these are
distinctly opened in the word. You see here God begins with David,
' Seek ye my face.'

Indeed, God is a God of order. In this subordination of God and the
creature, it is fit that God should begin. It is God's part to command, and
ours to obey. This point might be enlarged, but it is a point that doth
but make way to that that follows, therefore I will not dwell upon it.

Again, in this first part, God's command or warrant, * Seek ye my face,'
you see here,

Ohs. 2. God is w'dUng to he knoxm. He is willing to open and discover
himself; God delights not to hide himself. God stands not upon state, as
some emperors do that think their presence diminisheth respect. God is
no such God, but he may be searched into. Man, if any weakness be dis-
covered, we can soon search into the depth of his excellency ; but with God
it is clean otherwise. The more we know of him, the more we shall admire
him. None admire him more than the blessed angels, that see most of
him, and the blessed spirits that have communion with him. Therefore he
hides not himself, nay, he desires to be known ; and all those that have
his Spirit desire to make him known. Those that suppress the knowledge
of God in his will, what he performs for men and what he requires of them,
they are enemies to God and of God's people. They suppress the opening
of God, clean contrary to God's meaning : * Seek my face ;' I desire to be
made known, and lay open myself to you.

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER. 13 3

Therefore we may observe by the way, tbat wben we are ia any dark
condition, that a Christian finds not the beams of God shining on him, let
him not lay the blame upon God, as if God were a God that delighted to
hide himself. Oh no ; it is not his delight. He loves not strangeness to
his poor creature. It is not a point of his policy. He is too great to affect *
such poor things. No ; the fault is altogether in us. We walk not worthy
of such a presence ; we want humility and preparation. If there be any
darkness in the creature, that he finds God doth not so shine on him as in
former times, undoubtedly the cause is in himself ; for God saith, ' Seek
my face.' He desires to open himself. But it is a point that I will not be
large in.

We see hence likewise, that

Ohs. 3. God's goodness is a communicative, spreading goodness.

That is peculiar to God and to those that are led with the Spirit of God,
that are like him ; they have a communicative, diffusive goodness that loves
to spread itself. ' Seek ye my face.' I am good in myself, but I desire to
shine on you, to impart my goodness to you.

If God had not a communicative, spreading goodness, he would never
have created the world. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were happy in
themselves, and enjoyed one another before the world was. But that God
delights to communicate and spread his goodness, there had never been a
creation nor a redemption. God useth his creatures, not for defect of
power, that he can do nothing without them, but for the spreading of his
goodness ; and thereupon comes all the subordination of one creature to
another, and all to him.

Oh that w e had hearts to make way for such a goodness as God would
cast into us, if we were as we should be. God's goodness is a spreading,
imparting goodness. It is a common distinction. There is the goodness of
the fountain and the goodness of the vessel, that is our goodness, because
we contain somewhat in us that is good. The goodness of the creature,
that is but the channel or the cistern ; but the goodness of God is another
manner of goodness, the goodness of the fountain. The fountain begs not
from the river ; the sun borrows not light from the candle ; God begs not
goodness from the creature. Ours is a borrowed goodness, but his is a
communicative goodness : * Seek my face,' that I may impart my goodness.
The sun dehghts to spread his beams and his influence in inferior things,
to make all things fruitful. Such a goodness is in God as is in a fountain,
or in the breast that loves to ease itself of milk.

I note it, that we may conceive aright of God, that is more willing to
bestow good than we are to ask it. He is so willing to bestow it, that he
becomes a suitor to us, ' Seek ye my face.' He seeks to us to seek him.
It is strange that heaven should seek to earth, and yet so it is.

Quest. Whence comes this in God, the attribute of goodness, the spread-
ing goodness in his nature, that he desires to impart and communicate
himself ?

Ans. There is no envy in God. He hath none above him, and there-
fore he labours to make all good. There is a mystery in it ; but if some be
not good, the fault is in themselves. As it is a prerogative in him to make
gome more and some less good, so there is a fault in them ; that I am no
better, it is my own fault. The prerogative belongs to God. We must
not search into that. But every man may say, I might have been better
and more enlarged ; I did not seek his face, that he might take occasion to
* That is, ' choose ' = love. — G.

YOL. VI. H

114 THE SUCCESSFUL SEEEER.

enlarge himself towards me. Would we be like our heavenly Father ? Let
us labour to have large affections, to have a spreading goodness.

Two things make us very like God, that much concern this point: to do
things freely of ourselves, and to do them far. To communicate goodness,
and to communicate it far to many. The greater the fire is, the further it
burns ; the greater the love is, the further it extends and communicates
itself. There are none more like God than those that communicate what
good they have to others, and communicate it as far and remote as they
can to extend it to many. Our Saviour Christ, you see what a world were
beholding to him ; heaven and earth were beholding to him. And the nearer
a man comes to Christ, the more there is a kind of self-denial, to do good
to others. Saint Paul had a great measure of Christ in him. He was
content to be bestowed for the good of the church ; the care of all did lie
upon him, 2 Cor. xi. 28. A public mind is God's mind ; a public mind is
a mind that loves to do good freely and largely to others. Therefore God
saith, ' Seek my face,' that I may have better opportunity to empty my
goodness to you. ' Seek my face ;' that is, seek my presence. The face
is the glass of the soul, wherein we see the mind of a man. ' Seek my
face ;' that is, seek my mind, seek my presence, as we shall see afterward.
I will speak no more of that point, God's warrant or command, but go on.

* My heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.'

Here is the work and obedience, 'My heart said unto thee,' &c. David's
heart was set in a good and sanctified frame by God ; it was between God
and his obedience. The heart is between God and our obedience, as it
were an ambassador. It understands from God what God would have done,
and then it lays a command upon the whole man. The heart and con-
science of man is partly divine, partly human. It hath some divinity in it,
especially if the man be a holy man. God speaks, and the heart speaks.
God speaks to the heart, and the heart speaks to us. And ofttimes when
we hear conscience speaking to us, we neglect it ; and as St Augustine said
of himself, ' God spake often to me, and I was ignorant of it ' («). When
there is no command in the word that the heart directly thinks of (as in-
deed many profane careless men scarce have a Bible in their houses), God
speaks to them thus ; conscience speaks to them some broken command,
that they learn against their wills. They heed it not, but David did not so.
God said, ' Seek ye my face ; ' his heart answers, ' Thy face, Lord, will I seek.'

The heart looks upward to God, and then to itself. 'My heart said.' It
said to thee, and then to itself. First, his heai't said to God, Lord, I have
encouragement from thee. Thou hast commanded that I should seek thy
face. So his heart looked to God, and then it speaks to itself, ' Thy face,
Lord, will I seek.' It looks first to God, and then to all things that come
from itself.'

' My heart said.' It said of that point, concerning the thing thou saidst,
' Seek my face.'

' My heart said to thee.'' David saw God in all his commandments :
* Thou saidst to me. Seek my face ; my heart said to thee.' I know the
command is from thee ; I have to deal with thee in the command and
encouragement, and in the warrant. I look not to the words, but to thee ;
the authority and strength of them comes from thee.

' My heart said to thee. Thy face. Lord, will I seek.'

Between the answer of David and God's command and warrant, the
heart comes to think seriously upon the command, and then to enjoin the

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER.

115

duty. This is to be considered, because there is no knitting of these two
together but by the heart, the serious consideration of the heart. When
God saith, * Seek my face,' he answers, ' I will seek thy face.' How comes
this return ? The soul considers the ground of the return before the
return. A man, when he doth anything, he doth it from the principles of
a man. A holy man, when he doth a thing, he doth it from the prmciple
of a holy man ; and what is the principles and foundation of the practice
of a holy man ? A sanctified understanding to tell him what God hath
said, and what he hath promised, and wherein God hath discovered himself.
Well, when the heart knows that once, the heart hath enough from
heavenward, it hath enough from heaven. God hath said and promised it.
Then the heart, by a work it hath of itself, speaks to itself, and to the
whole man, to seek God. The heart will not stoop without reason, the
heart of an understanding man; but when it sees the command first,
' Seek my face,' then it answers, ' Thy face. Lord, will I seek.' So that
this command of God, and this encouragement and warrant from God,
' Seek ye my face,' it was in David's heart, it was written, and set, and
grafted in his heart ; and then his heart being awed with the command
of God, God hath said thus, the heart goes again to God ; thou hast said
thus, Lord, ' thy face will I seek.'

See the depth of David's speech, when he saith, ' Lord, thy face will L
seek.' It came from his heart root, not only from the heart, but ftom the
heart, grounded upon the command and encouragement of God. ' Seek my
face.' There is the ground ; the heart digesting this thoroughly, this is
God's command ; I understand it, and understand it from God ; I see the
authority from whence it comes. Therefore I will stir up myself, ' Thy
face, Lord, will I seek.' I shall have occasion to speak somewhat of it
afterwards, in the next thing, his obedience. Therefore I go on.
* Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek.'

Here is his return again to God, that he will seek the face of God. i
will seek thy face in all my necessities. Then will I seek to thee ; and m
all thine ordinances I will seek to thee, whereinsoever thy presence is dis-
covered. Thy presence is in all places, especially in thme ordinances ;
thy presence is m all times, especially in the time of trouble and need. In
all times of need I will seek to thee ; in all exigences I will seek unto thee ;
and in all thine ordinances wherein I may find thee. I know I may meet
with thee there ; thou givest thy people meetings in thine ordinances. It is
thy walk ; therefore thy face. Lord, will I seek, where I may be sure to
meet thee, in thine own way and ordinances. So much for the meaning.
' Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' .

Here is, first of all, an application, and obedience from application, ihey
be words of particular application. ' Thy face will I seek.' God had
given him a ground, ' Seek ye my face.' His heart makes the application,
♦ Thy face I will seek,' applying the general encouragement to himself m
particular. So that you may observe hence that, _

Obs. The ground oj all obedience, of all holy intercourse ivith God, is a
spirit of application.

Applying the truths of God, though generally spoken, to ourselves in par-
ticular. It is spoken here in the plural number, ' Seek ye my face ; but
the general implies the particular, as London is in England. ' Seek ye
my face,' all ye that are the people of God. But I am one of them : what
though I be not named ? That tenet in popery is against sense. When
a man is condemned by the law, is his name in the law ? It is agamst

116 THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER.

such a fact ; he is a malefactor : and so the particular is included in the
general, ' Seek 3-e my face.' David knew that ; reason taught him that,
and not religion.

1. Now the ground of application of divine truths to ourselves in parti-
ticular is this, that the truth of God (setting aside some circumstantial
things that arise sometimes to particular persons, that sometimes limit the
command to one person, or the promise to one person, cut off those dis-
tinctions), all comfortable truths agree to GoiVs people in all ages, while there
is a church in the ivorhl. All truths are eternal truths, die not as men do.
David is dead, and Moses is dead ; but this truth is not dead, ' Seek ye
my face.' Paul is gone, and Peter is gone. We are the Davids and the
Moseses, and the Peters, and the Pauls now. Those truths that were good
to them are good to us. Whatsoever was written before was written for
our comfort, Eom. xv. 4. There is an eternal truth, that runs through all
ages of the church, that hath an everlasting comfort. God hath framed
the Scriptures not to be limited to the times wherein they were written, as
the papists idly speak, Bellarmine and others (i) ; as if they were occa-
sional things ; that the Scriptures were wTitten by such and such men, and
concerning only those times. But the Scriptures were written for all
times, and it concerns all times to apply all truths to themselves, setting
aside those circumstances that are applied to particular men, which are
easy to discern. In Heb. xiii. 5 that that was said to Joshua, Josh. i. 5, the
apostle applies it to the church in his time, and to all : ' Be not afraid ; I
will not fail thee nor forsake thee.' It is a general truth. ' And Abraham
believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness,' that whosoever
believes as Abraham is a son of Abraham, Eom. iv. 5. These truths are
universal, and concern every one, as well as any. And so"^many other
places of Scripture. ' The promise of the blessed seed,' the believing
of it runs from the beginning of the world, in all ages to the coming of
Christ. All other promises were but an enlargement of that, that was the
mother promise. That is the ground of application, that the general truths
agree to all the churches. The truth of God is the portion of every child
of God. He may claim every promise, and ought to follow the direction
of every command.

The reason is, because all the church of God are heirs alike — heirs of
the promise, children of Abraham, heirs of salvation. They have intei'est
in Christ alike, ' in whom all the promises are yea and amen ;' in whom
all the promises have their making and their performance. And by rea-
son that there is an indifferent equality, in regard of the main things, of all
the children of God, they have interest ahke in all the benefits by Christ :
in all truths, in all substantial duties to God, and all favours from God.
That is the ground of the equity of application.

2. But if you will have the ground of the necessitg of it, nature will shew
that. For the truths are food. If food be not taken, what good doth it
do without application ? The word of God is a sword : what will a sword
do if it hangs up in a man's chamber ? or if it be not used when the enemy
approacheth ? The application of the sword of the Spirit gives the virtue
to it. It is to no purpose else. Divine truths are physic. If it be not
applied, what use is there of physic ?

There is a necessity, if we will obey God, of a spirit of application.
There is nothing that will do good but by application, neither in nature
nor in grace. There must be a virtual* application at least. The heavens
* That is, = in efficacy, energy. — G.

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER. 117

work upon the earth. There is no application bodily, the heavens are too
high. But there is a virtual application ; there comes light in, and influence
to these inferior bodies. Therefore we say the sun is in the house, and in
the place we are in, though there be only his influence there. But there
must be appHcation of divine truth to the soul. It must be brought near
the soul before the soul can move. There is a necessity of application
from a principle of nature to make it our own.

Now as in nature there is a power in the soul to work out of the food
that that is good for every member, which we call a digestive power and
faculty, that applies and assimilates the meat and nourishment we take to
every part ; there hejihnv, sucking veins, that suck out of the meat strength
for this and that purpose ; so there is in the soul of every Christian and
holy man : there is a spiritual sucking ; there is a drawing digestive spirit,
that digests and draws out nourishment out of the book of God, that is fit
for him ; that he can say, This is mine, this is for me. I want comfort and
strength and direction, here it is. I want light, here it is. I am weak,
here is supply for it. So there is a digestive power by the Spirit of God
in every Christian, to suck and to draw out of the word that that is fit for
all purposes and turns ; and he can apply the word upon every occasion :
as, if it be a command, he obeys it ; if it be a threatening, he trembles at
it ; if it be comfort, he rests in it ; if it be a direction, he follows it like-
wise. He applies it answerable to the nature of the word, whatsoever it
is. His heart is moulded answerable to the word, by reason of the Spirit
of application.

3. As there is a ground of the application of the word, and a necessity
of it, so there is a principle of application ; that is, the Spirit of God in the
hearts of the children of God, teaching their spirits to draw wholesome
truths fitting to themselves ; and none but the children of God can do it,
that have the Spirit of God. They cannot apply the word of God aright.
False application of the word of God is the cause of all mischief sometimes,
when those that apply the law should apply the gospel ; and on the con-
trary, when those that should apply the law, sinful, secure persons, apply
the gospel. Many times poor distressed persons, that comfort belongs to —
' Oh comfort my people,' Isa. xl. 1 — they apply the law that belongs not to
them. In that case false application is the ground of mischief. Therefore
the Spirit of God is the principle of application of divine truths, according
to the exigence and estate of God's people.

Use. Therefore ive should he stirred up to berj the spirit of application, to
mo.intain our communion and intercourse with God, that we may apply every
thing duly and truly to ourselves and our own souls. All is to no purpose
else, if we do not apply it, if it be not brought home to our souls and
digested throughly in our hearts. We must say. This is from God, and
this belongs to me ; when we hear truths unfolded, to say of ourselves. This
concerns me, and say not. This is a good portion and a good truth for such
a one and such a one, but. Every one take out his own portion, this is for
me. God saith, * Seek my face ; thy face. Lord, willj seek,' with a spirit of
application.

If we do not — as indeed it is the fault of the times to hear the word of
God loosely — we care not so much to hear the word of God, as to hear the
gifts of men. We desire to hear fine things, to increase notions. We
delight in them, and to hear some empty creature, to fasten upon a story
or some phrases by the by. Alas ! you come here to hear duties and com-
forts, if you be good, and sentences against you, if you be naught. We

118 THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER,

speak God's threatenings to you that will wound you to hell, except you
pull them out by repentance. It is another manner of matter to hear than
it is took for. ' Take heed how you hear,' saith Christ, Luke viii. 18.
So we had need, for the word that we hear now shall judge us at the latter
day. Thereupon we should labour for a spirit of application, to make a right
use of it as we should.

Therefore those humble souls that are cast down in the sight and sense
of their sins, they must apply the sweet and blessed comforts of the gospel,
such as are contrite in spirit : ' Blessed are the poor in spirit ; blessed are
they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Come unto me, all ye
that are weary and heavy laden,' &c.. Mat. xi. 28. Those on the other
side, that go on in a course of sin, and will not be reclaimed, let them con-
sider what Moses saith, Deut. xxix. 20, ' If a man go on and bless himself,
my wrath shall smoke against such a man, and burn to hell.' I will not
remove my wrath from him, till by little and little I take my good Spirit
from him, and let him go with some temporal comforts, and then bring
him to hell. * I will curse him in his blessings.' He shall have blessings,
but he shall be cursed in all that he doth ; and all things shall be in wrath
and anger that shall burn to hell. Such like places, let such men apply to
themselves. There is no comfort at all to men that live in sin wittingly and
willingly. ' If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear m}' prayer,'
Ps. Ixvi. 18. If a man despise the ordinance of God, hearing and good
means, ' his prayer shall be abominable :' ' He that will not hear the law,
his prayer is abominable,' Prov, xxviii. 9. The applying of these things
would make men bethink themselves, and turn to God, when he considers
what part of the word belongs to him, and makes a right application.

If we make not a right application of God's truths, this mischief will
come of it.

(1.) We disJtonotir God and his hoiinty. Hath God been so bountiful,
as to give us so many instructions and such promises ? and shall not we
make them our own ? What is the end of the ministry but to spread before
us the unsearchable riches of Christ ? They are yours, if you will take
them. When you have not a spirit of application, and are not in case to
take them, they are lost : God's bount}^ is discredited.

(2.) The devil rejoiceth ivhen he seeth what excellent things are laid open in
the church of God, in the viinistry, xvhat sxveet promises and comforts, but
here is nobody to take them and lay hold on them ; like a table that is richly
furnished, and there is nobody comes and takes it. It makes the devil
sport, it rejoiceth the enemy of mankind when we lose so great advantage,
that we will not apply those blessed truths and make them our own. There
is no greater dehght to Satan, than for us to refuse those dainties that God
hath provided for us. What can rejoice an enemy more, than to see
courtesies refused ? He sees that all the Scripture is for comfort to poor
distressed souls ; and when they refuse their comforts and set light by them,
as they tell Job, ' Settest thou light by the consolations of the Almighty ? '
Job. XV. 11, then Satan, the enemy of mankind, and especially the
enemy of our comfort, since he hath lost all comfort and all hope of it him-
self, he rejoiceth to see us in this condition comfortless. Therefore let us
lay claim to the promises by a spirit of application.

(3.) Again, We are injiirions to ourselves, ive rob our own soids. The want
of this makes Christians be discouraged and droop as they do. When they
are cast down, all comfortable truths belong to them, j-et they put them
off: This is not for me and those in my case. When God saith he will

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER. 119

come and dwell with a humble heart, This is not for me. This spirit of
peevishness and forwardness* is that that keeps them long from that comfort
that they might enjoy. What ! to be in the midst of comforts and to starve ;
for a man to be at a feast and to starve, because he hath not a spirit to
digest and to take that that is fit for him !

We detest, and deservedly, those misers that, in the midst of all their
abundance, will not spend sixpence upon themselves. What a spirit of
baseness is this, in the midst of spiritual contentments and refreshings,
when God ofi'ers to feed our souls with the fat things of his house, to say,
Oh no ! this belongs not to me ; and cherish a peevish froward spirit that
puts all away. Why do we not labour to be in such a condition that we
may be cherished ? and that we may have satisfaction ? to be truly hungry
and poor in spirit, that we may be filled and satisfied, and not to go on
thus stubbornly ? There is a proud kind of modesty. Oh, this belongs
not to me ; I am unworthy. If we will hearken to our own misgiving hearts
in the time of temptation, we shall never answer God and say, ' Lord, thy
face will I seek.' Therefore let us labour for a spirit of supplication, f I
will not enforce that point further.

Now from this spirit of application, from this general ' Seek ye my face,'
comes obedience ; for it is a speech of obedience.

' Thy face. Lord, will I seek.'

I will seek hj thy strength and grace ; for when God utters a general com-
mand to his children, there goes with that command a secret virtue, whereby
they are enabled to seek him. There came a hidden virtue with this ' Seek
my face,' when David's spirit was raised by God to think of it. Together
with the thought of this ' Seek my fiice,' there was a virtue enabling his
soul to return back to God, to say, ' Lord, thy face will I seek.' So though
David said, ' I will seek thy face,' yet there was a spiritual virtue that
enabled him. God must find us before we can seek him. He must not
only give the command to seek his face, but together with the command,
there goes a work of the Spirit to the children of God, that enableth them
to seek him.

In the covenant of grace, God doth his part and ours too. Our part is to
seek God, to please him and walk before him. They are all one ; I need not
be curious in particulars. Now this was not a speech of self-confidence,
but a speech of the Spirit of God, that went with the command to him.

This is a great encouragement, by the way, to hear good things,_ and to
come to the congregation. We hear many great things, high duties,^ but
we are not able to perform them. It is true, but the gospel is the ministry
of the Spirit ; and together with the duty there goes the Spirit to enable us
to the duty. ' Stand up and walk,' saith Peter to the poor lame man, and
there went an enabling virtue to raise him. Acts iii. 6. * Arise,' saith Christ
to Lazarus, and there went a divine virtue to make him rise, John xi. 43 ;
and here, ' Seek my face,' there went a divine virtue to make him seek,
which those that contemn the ordinances of God want, because they will
not attend upon the ordinances. So much for that.

Now I come to his obedience.

' Thy face, Lord, will I seek.'

This obedience ariseth from application, and his obedience hath these
qualifications :

1. It ivas present. As soon as he heard God's will, as soon as his heart
did think of the word, he puts not off. The Spirit of God and the works
* Qu. ' frowardncss '?— Ed. t Qu. ' application ' ?— Ed.

120 THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER.

of it, are not slow in the children of God ; but when they hear their duty,
there is a spirit presently, ' Thy face will I seek,' before the heart grow
cold again.

2. Again, This return and answer, as it was present, so likewise it ivas a
pliable obedience : ' Thy face will I seek.' It is a speech of a ready, cheer-
ful, pliable heart. Where the Spirit of God works, it makes not only pre-
sent and quick, but cheerful and pliable. For the Spirit of God is like fire,
that softens the hardness of the heart, that naturally is like iron, and makes
it pHable. God's people are a voluntary people, as it is Ps. ex. 3 ; a people
of devotion, of readiness of will, and cheerfulness ; a free-hearted people,
a people set at large. They are led with a royal spirit, a spirit above their
own ; and that makes that easy and pleasant to them, that otherwise is
difficult and impossible to nature.

When Isaiah's lips were touched with a coal from the altar — that is, he
had somewhat from the Spirit of God to encourage nature — then ' Here I
am. Lord ; send me,' Isa. vi. 8. He detracted* the business before, and
put it oft' as much as he could. The Spirit of God makes pliable, as we
see in the Acts. They cared not for suffering whips or anything, because
they were made pliable to God's service ; they accounted it an honour to
sufler anything for God's sake, Acts v. 41. The obedience that is good is
pliable and cheerful.

God would have things in the church done by such people. The very
building of the tabernacle was done by such voluntary people, that brought
in as God moved their hearts. Oh, beloved, a Christian knows what it is
to have a royal spirit, a free spirit. David knew it. When he had lost it
by his sin, he prayed that he might have a free spirit, a cheerful spirit, in
the service of God, and in his particular calling, for sin darkens and straitens
the soul. ' Thy face will I seek.' His heart was weary and pliable now,
as God would have it.

So should our hearts be ; and they will be so, if we have the Spirit of
God, ready and cheerful. God hath none to fight his battles against Satan
and the kingdom of darkness, but voluntaries. All God's people are volun-
taries. They are not pressed soldiers ; I mean, not against their wills, in
that sense. Indeed, they have press-money in baptism, to fight against
the world, the flesh, and the devil ; but they are not pressed, they are
voluntaries. They know they serve a good general, that will pay them
abundantly ; therefore they labour to be voluntary. It is a good sajdng,
There is no virtue in men that do things against their wills ; for that is
virtue and grace that comes from a man from his own principles, from
cheerfulness : ' God loveth a cheerful giver,' I might enlarge this, but I
do but take it as it may strengthen the point. Our obedience to God, it
must be pliable, and cheerful, and voluntary.

3. Again, Obedience, if it be true, it isjjcrfect and sincere, looking to God :
' Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' We must eye God in it, and God's com-
mandment, and not have a double eye. We must not look to our own
selves. It must be perfect obedience ; that is, opposite to that which is
hypocritical. That is the best perfection. For the perfection of degrees
is not to be attained here, but this perfection of soundness is to be laboured
for ; as we see here it was a sound obedience : ' Thy face. Lord, will I
seek.' I will not seek thy favours and blessings so much as thy face. It
was perfect obedience, as perfection is opposed to unsoundness.

4. It was likewise a jrrofessed obedience before all the world, in spite of

* That is, ' drew back from,' = delayed. — G.

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKEK. 121

Satan : * Thy face will I seek.' Let the devil and the world do what they
can ; let others do as they will ; but as Joshua saith, ' If you will worship
other gods,' if you will fall away, do ; ' but I and my house will serve the
Lord.' What if his house will not serve the Lord ? If my house will not
serve the Lord, I will. So we should all be of Joshua's mind, 'I and my
house will serve the Lord,' Josh. xxiv. 15, let the world go which way it
will. In blessed St Paul's time. Oh, saith he, ' There are many of whom
I have told you often, and now tell you weeping, who are enemies to the
cross of Christ, whose end is damnation, who mind earthly things,' Philip,
iii. 18. What doth Paul in the mean time ? Oh, but ' our conversation is
in heaven.' We swim a contrary way. We care not to let the world know
it. Our conversation is another way. So our obedience must not only be
present, and pliable, and perfect, but a professed obedience : that^ is, to
break through all the oppositions of the devil and the world ; with an
invincible resolution to break through all difficulties, and scandals, and
examples of great persons, and of this and that, if we will go to God, and
say truly, ' Lord, thy face will I seek.' Let other men seek what they
will : let them seek the face and favour of others ; ' Thy face will I seek.'
Thou shalt be instead of all to me, as indeed he is.

5. Again, As it is a professed, so it is a continued, a perpetual obedience.
He is resolved for the time to come. ' Thy face will I seek :' not only now,
and then turn my back upon thee afterwards ; but I will seek thy face, till
I see thee in heaven. I see thy face in thine ordinances, in the word, in
thy people ; where two or three be gathered, thou art among them, Mat.
xviii. 20. I will see thy fiice as I may, till I see it in heaven. So here is
a perpetual resolution : * Thy face I will seek.'

6. Lastly, There is one thing more in this obedience and answer to God's
command, that his answer to God is an answerable answer ; that is, the
answer and obedience is suitable to the command. God's command was,
' Seek my face.' His answer is, ' Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' So the
point is, that

Obs. Our obedience to God must be ]}ro2iortionabIe to that that is commanded.

It must not be this or that devised by men. When the Lord's eye is on
you in this place, and gives you a charge to do thus, the obedience must
be suitable. When he saith, ' Seek my face,' we must obey : ' Thy face,
Lord, will we seek.' Therefore it may, in some poor sense, be compared
to an echo. We return obedience in the same kind. The Spirit of God
teacheth the children of God to do so, to answer God in all the things he
doth. I know not a better evidence of a child of God, than this answering
spirit. How shall I know that God loves me ? I love him again ; there-
fore I know he hath loved me first. It is an undoubted argument. How
shall I know that God hath chosen me ? I choose him : 'Whom have I
in heaven but thee ? and what is there in earth in comparison of thee ? '
Ps. Ixxiii. 25. It is an undoubted argument : Shall I be able to single out
God, to be instead of all to me ? and hath not he chosen me first ? Can
there be anything in the current, that is not in the spring before ? It is
impossible. I know God ; I look on him as my father : certainly he hath
shined on me first. I have said to him, * Thou art my God ; ' certainly
he hath said before, ' Thou art my servant.' If I say to him, ' Thou art
my God,' certainly he hath said before, ' I am thy salvation.' He hath
begun. For this is the order : God begins. He saith, ' Seek my face ; '
then if we have grace to return answerable obedience to God, ' Thy face,
Lord, will I seek.' When thou biddest me. Lord, I will love thee, I will

122 THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER.

choose thee, and delight in thee ; thou shalt be my God. If we have this
returning spirit back again, we cannot have a better argument that God
loves us, than by answering God's course.

This is that that St Peter hath in 1 Peter iii. 21, That that doth all in
baptism, it is not ' the washing of the filth of the body,' but the J'^rsgwrTj/ia,
' the answer,' or the demand ' of a good conscience ; ' but ' answer' is better.
The answer of a good conscience cleanseth in baptism. What is that '?

In baptism, dost thou believe, saith the minister, in God the Father
Almighty ? I do believe. That was the answer. Dost thou believe in
God the Son ? I do believe. Dost thou believe the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting? I do believe. Dost
thou renounce the devil and his works ? I renounce them. That is the
answer of a good conscience. Where that is from the heart, there God
hath spoken to that heart before, and there is obedience to purpose. ' Thy
face will I seek.' It is that that brings comfort, not the washing of the
water. It is not the eating of the bread, and drinking the wine, and hear-
ing the word of God : when there is not the answer of a good conscience,
when we say we believe, and we will do this, to do it indeed. Lord, ' I will
believe ; ' I will go out of the church with a purpose to practise what I
hear. Here is the answer of a good conscience, when we mingle what we
hear with faith, and labour to practise it, or else it will do no good.

Our obedience must be suitable and answerable, as I said before : if it
be a direction, to follow it ; if it be a command, to obey it ; if it be a
threatening, to fear it ; if it be a comfort, a promise, to rest upon it. Let
there be a suitableness of obedience to the word thereafter as the word is.
Let us have a spiritual desire to these things, to imitate the holy man of
God, as we desire to share in his comforts.

I will follow this point of the answerableness of obedience a little further,
and then come to the particular of seeking.

Let our obedience be every way answerable first. Let the heart think
what God saith, what God commands and promiseth ; let the heart take
the word of God the second time and ruminate on it, and go over it again.
Let us look into the word, and see what is commanded, and what is pro-
mised, and then let the heart go over it again. And then upon that allege
it to God.

(1.) Put case a man be in trouble, Lord, thou hast commanded, ' CaU upon
me in the day of trouble, and I will hear thee,' Ps. 1. 15. Let the heart
think of it and go over that encouragement. It is rather an encouragement
than a command. Though indeed God lay a command on us to be good
to our own souls, it is a duty to love ourselves. Therefore he commands
us to go to him, to seek his face, as though we wronged him by disobedi-
ence, when we injure ourselves by our peevishness, as indeed we do. God
loves us better than we love ourselves. Let us think of the command and
invitation ; thou hast commanded me. Lord, and encouraged me to come ;
I am now in trouble, experience teacheth me. I come to thee. Thou
hast said, ' He that sitteth in darkness, and seeth no light, let him trust in
the name of the Lord,' Isa. 1. 10. I am in darkness, and see no light now,
I trust in thy name. Let the heart think of the promise, and then allege
it to God, and come with an obedient answer, and cast itself upon him, and
trust in him.

(2.) We are in want, jJerJiaps, and see no issue, no supply. Think of
God's gracious promise, 'I will not fail thee, nor foi'sake thee,' Heb. xiii. 5.
I come to thee and claim this promise ; I am in covenant with thee, &c.

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER. 123

(3.) So ice should take the promise. Thou hast said, 'At what lime
soever a sinner conies to thee with a repentant heart, thou wilt forgive his
iniquities ; and though his sins were as scarlet, thou wilt make them as
snow, and white as wool,' Isa. i. 18. My soul thinks of that command,
and I come to thee.

Thou hast bid all that are weary and hea%'y laden in soul, that are
troubled in conscience with the sense of their sins, to come unto thee.
My heart thinks of thy command and invitation, I come to thee ; I am
weary and heavy laden. First, let us think of the encouragement, that is
our warrant, and then yield present obedience. And then what will be the
issue ? What will spring from it when the heart and obedience join with
the command, that there is a meeting, that they concentrate the heart and
obedience ? God bids the heart obey. The heart saith, I do obey.
When these meet, the issue must be exceeding comfortable. It cannot be
otherwise, when the obedient heart meets God in his command, in his
promise.

In all perplexity of business, ' commit thy way to the Lord, and he
shall establish thy thoughts,' Prov. iii. 6, and other places. Lord, I com-
mit my waj's to thee ; establish my thoughts and designs agreeable to thy
will, because thou hast bid me commit my ways to thee.

In the hour of death, let us commend ourselves to God, ' as to a gracious
and merciful Creator,' 1 Pet. iv. 19. Lord, I commend to thee my soul,
who art the Creator of my soul and the Eedeemer of it. Here is an obe-
dience answerable. What can be the issue of it but comfort ?

Therefore let us learn by the example of this blessed man, that when he
had but a hint from God, ' Seek ye my face,' answers, ' Thy face, Lord,
will I seek.'

Faith will see light at a little crevice. When it sees an encouragement
once, a command, it will soon answer : and when it sees a promise, half a
promise, it will welcome it. It is an obedient thing, ' the obedience of
faith,' Rom. xvi. 26. It believes, and upon believing, it goes to God. As
the servants of the king of Assyria, they catch the word presently, * Thy
servant Benhadad,' 1 Kings xx. 32 ; so faith, it catcheth the word.

To put God in mind, it is an excellent thing with the prophet, whosoever
penned the 119th Psalm, whether David, or some other, * Eemember thy
promise, wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust,' ver. 49. As it is
Neh. i. 8, * Remember, Lord.' He puts God in mind of his promise ;
and so it is good often to jDut God in mind. Lord, thou hast made such
and such promises. I know thou canst not deny thyself. If thou shouldst
deny thy word, thou must deny thyself. Thy word is thyself. ' Remember
thy promise, wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust.' If I be
deceived, thou hast deceived me, for thou hast given me this promise and
this command. This is an excellent way to deal with God, as it were, to
wrestle with him. ' By thy promise thou hast quickened me,' Ps. cxix. 50.
When I was dull and dead-hearted, then I thought on such and such a
promise. I allege that promise, and apply it by a spirit of faith, and that
quickened me.

And indeed, as I said, God hath made us fit to answer him, and we
should study in all things to return unto him by his Spirit. Whatsoever
God doth, the heart should return back again — love for love, knowledge for
knowledge, seeking for seeking, choosing for choosing. He begins with us,
he chooseth us, he loves us, he seeks us ; and we, if ever w^e intend to be
friends with God, and to entertain a holy communion, as all that shall be

124

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKEK.

saved must do, we should labour to have our hearts to return to God, what
we find from God first, ' Thy face. Lord, will I seek.' To come more
particularly to this seeking, which is the particular of the obedience and of
the application.

* Thy face. Lord, wall I seek.'

Seeking implies that our happiness is out of ourselves. It implies that
there is somewhat in ourselves, in the application to which there must be
some happiness. Therefore we go out of ourselves to seek. It is a motion,
and it is out of an apprehension of some want ; a man seeks out of some
want, or out of some loss, or out of some duty. Either he hath loss, and
therefore he seeks ; or else he wants, and therefore he seeks ; or else he
owes respect and duty, and therefore he seeks. It is somewhat without a
man that moves his seeking.

God need not seek the creature ; he hath all fulness in himself. Indeed,
his love makes him seek for our love, to be reconciled to him. But the
creature, because his happiness is out of himself in communion with God,
the fountain of all good, he must seek.

Christians must be seekers.

This is the generation of seekers, Ps. sxiv. 6. All mankind, if ever they
will come to heaven, they must be a generation of seekers. Heaven is a
generation of finders, of possessors, of enjoyers, seekers of God. But here
we are a generation of seekers. We want somewhat that we must seek.
When we are at best, we want the accomplishment of our happiness. It
is a state of seeking here, because it is a state of want ; we want something
alway.

But to come more particularly to this seeking the face of God, or the
presence of God.

The presence of God, and the face of God, where is it to be sought for ?

(1.) Know that first for a ground : The presence of God it is everywhere.
But that is not the thing here purposed.

(2.) There is a face and presence of God in everything, in every creature.
Therefore every creature hath the name of God ; sometimes a rock : because
God is strong, so a rock is strong. So likewise a shield ; as a shield
defends, so God defends us. There is some resemblance of God in the
creature. Therefore God hath the name of the creature. But that is not
here meant.

(3.) The presence of God meant here is, that presence that he shews in
the time of need, and in his ordinances. He shews a presence in need and
necessity, that is a gracious presence to his children, a gracious face. As
in want of direction, he shews his presence of light to direct them ; in
weakness he shews his strength ; in trouble and perplexity he will shew
his gracious and comfortable presence to comfort them. In perplexity he
shews his presence to set the heart at large, answerable to the necessity.
So in need God is present with his children, to direct them, to comfort
them, to strengthen them, if they need that.

(4.) And in the issue of all business there is a presence of God to give a
blessing; for there is a presence must be even to the end of things. When
we have all we would have, yet God must give a blessing. So you sea
there is a presence of God answerable to the necessity of man, as it hath
reference to this place.

' Thy face will I seek,' to direct me by thy heavenly light when I know
not what to do, as Jehoshaphat said, ' W« know not what to do, but our
eyes are towards thee,' 2 Chron. xx. 12. And so in weakness, when we

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER. 125

have no strengtli of our own, then go to God, to seek the face of God, that
he would be present with us. So when we are comfortless, go to God that
comforts the abject, 'the God of all comfort;' go to him, for his pre-
sence, for help. And when we are troubled in our hearts about success,
what will become of such and such a business ; go to God, that gives
success and issue to all. Thus we see a presence of God answerable to
every necessity of man.

(5.) There is a gracious presence of God Hkewise in his ordinances.
That is the chief presence, next to heaven, the presence in God's ordi-
nances ; that is, in the unfolding of the word, in the administration of the
sacraments, in the communion of saints. Indeed, in the ordinances God
is graciously present. ' AVhere two or three are gathered together, I will
be in the midst of them,' Mat. xviii. 20. Therefore in Eev. i. 12, seq., it
is said, * that Christ walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks ; '
that is, in the midst of the church. There is a gracious presence of Christ
in the midst of the candlesticks. He takes his walk there. Christ hath a
special presence in his church in the ordinances ; and that David aims at
here too, not only, I will seek thy face in trouble and necessity, when I
need anything from thee, but ' Thy face will I seek in all thine ordinances,'
to enable me for the other. For it is in vain for a man to think to seek
God in his necessity and exigence, if he seek not God in his ordinances, and
do not joy in them. So you see where the face and presence of God is to
be sought ; in necessities of all kinds, and in the ordinances.

Now, in our seeking the presence or face of God, there is four or five
things that I will touch the heads of.

[1.] First of all, seeking implies observance. Seek my face; that is,
observe me, respect me as a God. ' Thy face I will seek,' I will be a fol-
lower of thee ; as in English an ' observer ' is a follower, a creature. It is a
proud word ; as if man could make a man of nothing. And indeed they
are creatures in that kind, they are raised of nothing. To seek a man is
to observe him. There is a notable place for it, Prov. xxix. 26, * Many
seek the ruler's favour.' In the Greek translation, the Septuagint, the
word is, to observe and respect a man, which is translated seeking (c).
Many observe the ruler; but every man's judgment cometh from the Lord.
You see those that think to rise by the favour of such or such a man, they
will be his followers, as I said, and observe him ; they study men ; as those
that rise by favour that way, they study not books so much as men, what
may delight such a man, what he respects. Surely they will serve him at
every turn. A base atheist makes a man his god. That he may rise, he
will deny God and the motions of conscience, and honesty, and all to
observe the face of a great man whom he hopes to rise by. But a true
Christian observes the great God. The greatest preferment comes from
him. So it signifies to ' observe.'

In Ps. Ixii. 11, there you shall see the ground of observation is, that
power belongs to God. * I have heard once, nay, twice.' He heard it twice
by the meditation of it, by going over it in his heart again. I have heard
once, nay, twice ; that is, I thought again and again on it ; that is, hearing
of it oft. We may hear a truth a hundred times, that is, by meditating of
it. ' I have heard once, nay, twice, that power belongs to God ;' that is,
riches and power to advance a man. Atheistical men think all belongs to
the creature, but power belongs to God. That is one thing that is meant
by seeking, diligent observing of God, and respect to him and his will and
commandments in all things.

126 THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKEE.

If SO be that a person of great place should say, Observe me, and I will
prefer you, I hope men would be ready enough, they need no more words.
Here is the atheism of our hearts. God saith, I will do all good for you.
The greatest preferment is to be the child of God here, and the heir of
heaven after. What preferment is there to that of Christianity ! And he
saith. Seek my face, observe me, respect me, let the eye of your souls be
to me, as it is in the Psalm, ' As the eyes of a maid are toward the hand
of her mistress,' Ps. cxxiii. 2. The obedience of a servant is toward the
eye of the commander, so the obedience of a Christian is toward the eye
of God, to see what God commands. We should be more serviceable to
God. It is an argument of the atheism of our hearts, to take more
encouragement from a mortal man that can raise us and do us a pleasure,
than from God himself. But to let that go, that is the first branch, ' Seek
my face,' that is, observe me.

[2.] Then seek my face ; that is, depend upon me. To seek God's face,
is'to depend upon him for all. It argues dependence. For him that we
observe, we observe him for something. We depend upon him to be our
raiser and maker. So seek my face, seek my countenance and favour ;
depend upon me, and it shall be sufficient for you.

[3.] Then, in the third place, ' Seek my face ;' that is, seek my favour
and grace. Favour appears and shines in the face. ' Seek my face,'
observe me, depend on me ; for what ? For my favour. What is that ?
It is all. If we have the grace of God, we have all. For the grace of God
is in every thing that is good to us. If we have the graces to salvation,
they come of free grace : every good gift is the grace of God. Children
are the grace of God. So, if we have the grace of God, we have all for our
good. We have all in the spring of good, which is the grace and favour of
God. As men, if they be graced from a great person, they study not this
and that particular thing. They think, I have his favour, and that favour
of his is ready for all exigences. And therefore, in way of compliment,
they say, I seek not this or that, but your favour.

The favour of God, it is a storehouse, and spring, and fountain, better than
life itself; as the psalmist saith, ' The loving-kindness of the Lord is better
than life,' Ps. Ixiii. 3. When life fails, the favour of God never fails. Life
will fail, and all earthly comforts ; but the favour of God is better than life
itself; it is everlasting and eternal. In Psalm iv. 7, you see how worldly,
atheistical men rejoice when their corn and wine and oil increase. And
* who will shew us any good ? ' who ? It is no matter who ; any good, any
hope of preferment, it is no matter what way ; and it is no matter what,
any good ; and let them but shew it and we will work it out, we have wit
enough. Oh, saith he, but your wit I stand not upon, nor jowc courses ;
but, ' Lord, let thy face shine upon me, lift up the light of thy counte-
nance,' and that shall be instead of all honours and preferments. So in
seeking we must observe God, and depend upon him ; and for what ? For
his favour especially ; for the face and favour of God. Let me have a
good look from thee, Lord ; let me have thy favour and love. For
other things I leave them to thy wisdom, thou art wise enough ; only let
thy face shine on me.

Oh this favour and face of God, it is a sweet thing, this presence of God !
What is heaven but the presence of God there '? Let God be present in
a dungeon, it will be a paradise ; let God be absent, paradise it is as a
hell or dungeon, as it was to Adam ; after he had sinned, he ran to hide
himself. What is hell but the want of God's presence ? God's face and

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER. 127

favour is not there. What makes hell in the heart of a roan ? God is
not there, but leaves the heart to its own darkness and confusion. Oh
therefore, the face and favour of God, seek that especially !

[4.] Again, To seek the face of God is to jyray to him, to jmt this in exe-
cution in prayer. Everywhere in Scripture it is all one to pray and to seek
God's face. It is called the spirit of prayer ; which because I have spoken
of at large out of another scripture, I will now say nothing of it.*

[5.] Likewise, in the next place, to seek the face of God is to attend upon
the jjresence of God, n-heresoever he reveals himself : to attend upon the word
and ordinances is to ' seek the face of God.' It is said that Cain went
from the face of God when he went from the worship of God in his father's
house ; he went out from God, Gen. iv. 16. 'Where God is worshipped,
there God is present ; and when we leave the place where God is worshipped,
we leave God's presence. God is more especially present there, therefore
seeking the face of God is to attend upon God's ordinance : ' I will seek
thy face ;' that is, wheresoever there is any presence of thee I will seek thee.

Christ when he was lost, he was found in the temple. That hath a
literal sense, but it is true in a spiritual sense. If we lose Christ, and
have not comfort from Christ, we shall find him in the temple. The
sweetest presence of his Spirit is there. His body is in heaven, and his
Spirit is his vicar in the world. If we want comfort and direction from
Christ, we shall meet him in the temple. There he gives us sweet meet-
ings by his Spirit ; there we have the comfort, and direction, and spiritual
strength that we wanted before we came. There is the best meeting. As
in the Canticles, Christ goes into the * garden of spices.' He goes among
his children, that are as a watered garden, and as so many plants of right-
eousness and beds of spices. He delights to be there. Christ is in the
communion of saints in the ordinances, therefore ' thy face will I seek,'
especially in the tabernacle, and temple after ; especially in the church
and communion of saints, there thy face will I seek. Thus we see the
unfolding of this promise of a gracious, obedient, respective heart : ' Thy
face will I seek.' I will add no more, but come to the use of it.

Use. And in the first place, by way of direction, that we may seek the
face of God — that is, observe him, and depend upon him, and enjoy his
favour, and meet with him in his ordinances — we must first get

The knowledf/e of God [and of] ourselves.

1. Get the knowledge of God, for they that know him will seek to him.
They that know his riches, his power, his sufiiciency, in a word, his all-
sufficiency for all things, they will seek to him. And they that know them-
selves, that know their wants, their inability to supply those wants, and
know the greatness of those wants, and that they must be supplied, they
will out of themselves. They that have nothing at home will seek
abroad. The knowledge of these two therefore, of the great God, the all-
sufficient God ; and of ourselves, the insufficiency of ourselves every way,
either for direction, or for protection, or for comfort in distress, or for
strength in duty to go through business, or for issue when we are about
anything ; ' they that know that the way of man is not in man,' as Jere-
miah saith, X. 23, they would certainly out of themselves. Therefore let us
grow in the knowledge of God and of ourselves, of our own wants and
necessities.

And especially know God now in Christ. For there is enmity between
the nature of God and the nature of man, of sinful man ; but that Christ
* Cf. the General Index under ' Prayer.' — G.

128 THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKEE.

hath taken our nature now and made it lovely to God, and God lovely to
us. Christ Immanuel, God and man, ' God with us,' hath made God
and us friends. Therefore now we must go to God in that Immanuel, in
Christ, that ladder that joins heaven and earth together. See God's face
shining in Christ, his gracious face, and this will encourage us to go to
God together with our wants. Go not to absolute God, a God without a
mediator ; for then God is ' a consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29.

2. In the next jjlace, when we go to God, and seek to God, be sure to
seek his favour and grace in the first 2)lace. If we want any particular thing,
protection or direction or comfort in distress, go not for that in the first
place, but let us see in what terms God and we are ; let us be sure that
reconciliation and peace be made. For if we seek to God in our particular
wants, and have not made our peace before, but have sought to other gods,
to men, and to our shifts,* God may say, You seek to me ! Go to the gods
you have served, to the great men you have served, to the riches you have
trusted unto, go to your shifts.* Therefore, first, make peace and reconci-
liation with God before j'ou seek other things. If a man have offended a
great person, he doth not go and seek particular favours, till first he have
made peace and taken up the quarrel. Let us take up the quarrel between
God and us, by repentance and a promise of new obedience ; get reconcilia-
tion that way, and then seek for particular favours after.

For what if God give you particular favours, if they be not from his grace
and favour, what will they do us good ? What will all that a reprobate
wretch hath do him good ? What will his favours, his riches, and honours
and preferments do him good when he dies, when he shall conflict with the
ano-er of God ? when he shall see hell before him and see heaven shut ? He
seeth he hath all, from a general providence and as a reward for his care
in this world. God answereth him with a civil enlargement for his civil
obedience, but he hath his reward. Heaven he hath not, he cared not for
it. What will all do without the love of God in Christ ? Therefore I
beseech you, let us first seek the favour and mercy of God in Christ.

And then for particular things go to him as the exigence is ; for in God
there is a supply for all turns, and that is the ground of seeking ; for our
seeking it must be a wise seeking. Now it were not wise, unless there
were a supply in God for every want, whatsoever it is. If the creature
could do anything without God, we should upon good ground make that
God. If anything could raise us without God, I mean, to comfort, we
might seek to them, and make them God upon good reason ; but what can
they do ? In anger, God may let a man enjoy favours, as the fruits of his
displeasure, but what can they do without him ? They can do nothing.
Therefore it must be the supreme cause, the highest cause, the great wheel
that turns every little inferior wheel in the world. They turn with the
great wheel of divine providence and goodness ; therefore go to him as the
first cause. ..

3. Again', In seeking the favour of God, we must search our consciences,
to come u-ith jmre and clean hearts to God to seek him. If we regard ' iniquity
in our hearts, God will not hear our prayers,' Ps. Ixvi. 18. We come to
God with a purpose to ofi'end him. If we come not with a purpose to leave
our sins, why do we come ? God will not regard our prayers. We must
come with pure consciences to God, as it is excellently set down, Ps. xxiv. 3,
' Who shall ascend into thy hill, Lord ? who shall stand in thy holy place ?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.' And then he saith after,

* That is, ' expedients.' — G.

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER.

129

* This is the generation of them that seek him,' those that have clean hands
and a pure heart. Thou hast foul hands ; thou art a briber, a corrupter ;
thou hast an impure heart ; thou art a filthy creature ; thou hast lived in
such and such sins ; cleanse thy hands and thy heart. ' This is the gene-
ration of them that seek him.' If a man seek the pure and holy God with
an unclean heart and unclean hands ; if he be corrupt in his hands and in
his heart, that is the fountain, he may seek God long enough before he find
him, and if he see God, it is in anger,

4. Again, If we would seek the face and favour of God, let us study the
word hard. Study the promises, as I said before, bind him with his own
word. Thou hast said thus, I allege thy own w^ord. Jacob, when he
wrestled with God, Gen. xxxii. 24, then he saw God ; he called the place
Peniel, that is, the face of God, because of seeing God. Upon wresthng,
when the heart by faith wrestleth with God by the promise — ' Lord thou
hast done this ; though I feel no comfort, yet I will rest upon thee' — that
place will be Peniel ; the face of God will be there, God will shew himself.

And let the extremity be what it will, seek God in extremity ; allege
the word of God in extremity. What word have you for extremity ? ' In
the mountain God will be seen,' Gen. xxii. 14, His face will be seen in
the mount ; that is, when there is no other help whatsoever. ' God is a
present help in trouble,' Ps. xlvi. 5.' He is the ' God that comforteth
the abject,' 2 Cor. vii. 6, that none else can comfort ; ' and he that is in
darkness, and sees no hght, let him trust in the name of the Lord,' Isa.
1. 10. And ' though I were in the valley of the shadow of death,' if the
Lord be with me, ' I will trust in him,' Ps. xxiii. 4, ' And though thou
kill me, j'et will I trust in thee,' saith Job, Job xiii. 15. In extremity seek
God then, and find out words and promises then, as the Scriptures is large
in that kind ; for then there is most need of seeking God. Lord, if thou
help not now, none can help.

And this is the difterence between a true child of God and another. In
the time of extremity, Saul seeks to the witch ; but David seeks to God, as
here, ' Lord, thy face will I seek.' Many things upbraided David, no ques-
tion, with his sin and the afiiiction he was in. Thou seek God ! Thou
hast ofiended him, and now thou endurest some sign of his displeasure. A
heavy case, beloved, sometimes, especially in the time of extremity. Then
conscience saith, I am in extremity, and withal God follows me with such
and such sins, A guilty conscience meets me in my prayers to God and
upbraids me, Thou hast done so and so ; that if there be not faith, and a
word of God to lay hold on in extremity, what will become of the poor
soul ? It is swallowed up. No question David was now in pangs, and
many things offered to thrust him off, and he might say, ' I have many
things to discourage me,' yet ' thy face, Lord, will I seek,' for deliverance
out of trouble and for pardon of sin. Set the promise of God and the
pardon of sin above all extremity whatsoever. God is the God of all and
above all, he is ' the God of comfort.' If comforts be wanting, he can
make them anew. In the want of means, and when means are against us,
let us seek to God. Jonah in the whale's belly, that was a creature that
might have consumed him with heat, ' when he was in the belly of hell, he
called unto God,' Jonah ii, 2. If a man be as low as hell, if he have a
command to come, and a promise, it will fetch him thence. Therefore allege
the promises and the word.

What a miserable taking are they in, that in extremity have no acquain-
tance with God's word — with the promises or good examples — that have

VOL. VI. I

130 THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER.

stored up nothing ! Alas ! they are in the midst of a storm naked ; in
the midst of war and opposition disarmed ; they lie open to all assaults.
Therefore, as you love your own souls, gather grounds of comfort, treasure
up promises and holy truths, that in extremity you may say with David,
upon good ground. Lord, thou hast said thus and thus ; and in this extre-
mity I come to thee. ' Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' Break through all
fears and discouragements whatsoever ; allege the command of God, and
the promise of God, and the encouragements of God. My discouraged heart
saith thus, and Satan saith thus ; but. Lord, thou sayest thus, ' Seek
my face.' Shall not I believe and obey God more than the devil or mine
own lying false heart ? Therefore, except we will betray our souls to
temptations, and betray the comforts that we have, let us seek God in all
extremities,

I desire you to remember these directions, and be encouraged to seek to
God. Join^'the seeking in extremity, with the seeking him in his ordinances.
If we do not seek him in his ordinances, in the time of peace, let us never
think he will be so familiar with us in the time of trouble. If we be not
acquainted with him in his ordinances in prosperity, in extremity he will
be far off. Therefore ' seek the face of God' now, in all his ordinances.
That is the way to have provision of strength against all other extremities
whatsoever. It is a great comfort in extremity to one that hath sought
God in his ordinances before. Foolish atheistical men seek not the wisdom
of God in his ordinances. God cries to them and they regard it not. But
then they cry to God, and God will not answer them, but ' laugh at their
destruction,' Ps. xxxvii. 13. And as it is in Zechariah, you cry, ' and I
will not hear, because I cried and ye would not hear,' vii. 11. When God
speaks and we regard it not, we shall cry and he wall not regard it. There-
fore, as we desire his presence in the evil day, let us labour to hear him
now. Let us search his will, what he requires of us, and what he will do
for us, and labour to be armed with obedience against the time of distress.
And let us seek him hetimes. Now presently seek the favour of God, you
that are young. ' In the morning early will I seek thee,' Ps. Ixiii. 1. In
the morning of your years, in the morning of the day, it is good to seek
God, before the heart be possessed with other business, that he may bless
all our affairs. Seek his face, that his blessing, and direction, and strength
may be upon all. Let us set upon things in his wisdom and strength, and
hope on his blessing.

And in the morning of your years, early, put not off. For here is the
mischief. If we seek not God early, betimes, the heart will be hardened,
and will grow worse ; to-morrow we shall be more unfit than to-day. Then
those that seek in their sickness, and at the hour of death, that is self-love.
It is grace to seek God for himself, out of old acquaintance and love. But
to seek him in sickness only, and to neglect his ordinances, it is merely
self-love. As a malefactor that carries himself ill in prison, and then seeks
the judge's face at the bar ; when God arraigns a man at the bar, then to
seek him, it comes from self-love. But that obedience we owe to God is
to seek him out of a new nature, out of love of God's goodness and grace.
When we seek him in extremity, not out of the love of grace, but to escape
the danger of hell and damnation, such seeking seldom proves good. Many
make a great show of repentance and turning to God, many of those prove
false. He that is good in affliction only is never good. Therefore put not
off seeking God's face, by prayer and the use of all good means.
Many men first settle their estates, and then send for a physician, and

THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER.

131

the divine last of all, when they are sick. Oh but seek God first, and
above all things in the world, or else we have adulterous, idolatrous hearts,
to make the face of man our idol, or health our idol. We should seek
God's face above all.

The Scripture sets him out sweetly to us. Therefore one way to
encourage us to seek to God, is to present to our souls God, under those
sweet terms. He is a rock in the midst of the waves ; he is a habitation
in the midst of a storm : ' Thou art our habitation,' Ps. Ixxi. 3. He is
called a hiding-place, he hath the shadow of his wings to cover us ; let us
fly under the shadow of his wings. He is presented sweetly_ to us m
Christ. Therefore let us have recourse to him upon all occasions ;_ and
now, now that we may be familiar with him, that we may bo acquainted
with him now, in the days of our youth, and he will know us in age and
sickness. If we be not acquainted with him now, he will not acquaint
himself with us then. Therefore seek his face now, and above all things
seek it.

And can we have more encouragement? There was never any that
sought the face of God that went away sorry. It is said of some good
emperors, that never any man went sorry oat of their presence ; either they
had the grant of their suits or good words {d). God sends none sorry
away. There are none that come into the presence of God but they are
the better for it. They go away more cheerful and more satisfied. Their
consciences are quieted when they pour out their souls to God. There is
' the peace of God which passeth understanding, preserves their soul,' as it
is Philip, iv. 7. ' In nothing be careful : but let there be thanksgiving
for favours received, and let your requests be made known to him; and
the peace of God shall preserve your hearts and minds,' Philip, iv. 6.
You shall not despair and be over much cast down, peace will preserve
you.

And if we do not seek the face of God now, when we may enjoy his
presence, we shall never see his face in glory hereafter. We must now be
acquainted with him, or else we shall not when we would.^ Therefore, as
we may enjoy the presence of God in his ordinances, so in all our affairs
let us seek his face and blessing. Let us have what we have, and do what
we do, in his blessing and assistance, and not in the strength of wit and
shifts.* Let us do what we do by divine strength, and in confidence^ of
his blessing. That that we do by his strength we may expect his blessing
on ; we cannot do so by our shifts. Let us inure ourselves in these courses,
and we shall find much peace ; and by long acquaintance with God we shall
be able to commit our souls to him ; we shall be able to look him in the
face at the hour of death. He that looks God in the face often in prayer,
and seeking him, may look death in the face. These things may be made
efi'ectual if your hearts be prepared, as the Scripture phrase is.

And because I mentioned preparing : that is a word in Scripture that is
set before seeking. Rehoboam did not thrive, he did not ' prepare his
heart to seek God,' 2 Chron. xii. 14. Jehoshaphat was blessed of God,
* he prepared his heart to seek the Lord,' 2 Chron. xx. 3. Therefore let
us come prepared to seek God, prepare our hearts to seek him. Think,
When I go to the congregation, I go to seek God's face ; therefore come in
humility and subjection. And in all the courses of our lives, let all of us
prepare, and set our hearts in frame to seek God in all things ; and let us
set upon nothing that we cannot depend on him for assistance, and look to
* That is, ' espedicnts.' — G.

132 THE SUCCESSFUL SEEKER.

him for a blessing. And when we cannot enjoy his favour and blessing in
anything, we were as good be without it as have it.

This is the way to have our wills in all things. Christ, the truth itself,
hath left us this one sweet promise, ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God,'
Matt. vi. 33. He speaks there of seeking our own good. What is the
best thing we should seek for ? ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God,' of
grace, and of glory ; the favour of God, and the fruit of his favour, grace.
Seek those best things in the first place. What then ? It is the way to
have all things else, as far as they are for our good. But we would have
more. We think if we seek to God, and depend upon God's divine prin-
ciples and rules, it is a way to beggary and disgrace. Oh no. It is the
way to have our own desire in all things, as far as it is for our good. Let
us seek first the kingdom of God, that God may rule and reign in us, and
we shall reign in the kingdom of God. For^ other things, God will bring
it to pass I know not how, they shall be cast upon us. He that is full for
heaven and happiness, God will make him full for the world, and success-
ful, as much as he sees fit to bring him to heaven. If God see anything
that would hinder him, he must leave that to his wisdom.

Therefore let us labour to be able from truth of heart to return to the
commandment and promise of God, this sweet and gracious answer of the
holy man David, when God saith generally or particularly, ' Seek my face,'
* Thy face, Lord, will I seek.'

NOTES.

(a) P. 114. — 'As Saint Augustine said of himself, " God spake often to me, and I
was ignorant of it." ' A frequent self-accusation in the ' Confessions.' Of. note /
Vol. II. page 194.

(b) P. 116. — ' God hath framed the Scriptures not to be limited to the times
wherein they were written, as the papists idly speak, Bellarmine and others.' A
commonplace of the popish controversy. Of. nnn, Vol. III. page 535.

(c) P. 125. — ' " Many seek the ruler's favour." In the Greek translation, the Sep-
tuagint, the word is to " observe " and respect a man, which is translated " seeking."'
The LXX rendering is oroXXo/ '^i^aVihovGi, i. e., ^s^a'TTsvu) = to wait upon, to
minister unto, to serve.

(d) P. 131. — ' It is said of some good emperors, that never any man went sorry
out of their presence ; either they had the grant of their suits or good words.' This
is said of various of the Caesars: e.g., Julius C^sar, Antoninus, and later, of Con-
stantine. Q.

A RESCUE FROM DEATH, WITH A RETURN
OF PRAISE.

A RESCUE FROM DEATH, WITH A RETURN OF PRAISE.

NOTE.

For the full title-page of the book of which ' A Eescue from Death ' forms the
second moiety, see Note to the Treatise composing the former, entitled ' Lydia's
Conversion,' in the second division of the present volume. G.

A RESCUE FROM DEATH, WITH A RETURN
OF PRAISE.

Fools, because of their transgressions, and because of their iniquities, are
afflicted, dc.—?B. CVII. 17, &c.

This Psalm containetli some passages concerning God's particular, sweet
providence ; not only to the church, but to other men ; for he that created
all things, even the meanest creature, must have a providence over all things ;
his providence must extend itself as large as his creation. For what is
providence but a continuance of creation : a preservation of those things in
being that God hath given to have a being. The prophet here of purpose
opposeth the profane conceits of them that think God sits in heaven, and
lets things go on earth, as if he cared not for them. It was the fault of the
best philosophers to ascribe too much to second causes. The psalmist here
shews that God hath a most particular providence in everything. First,
he sets it down in general, and then he brancheth it out into particulars,
especially four, wherein he specifieth God's providence.

The first instance is of those that ' wander in the wilderness hungry and
thirsty ;' ver. 4, ' They cry, and God regards them.'

The second is in ver. 10, ' They that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death, bound in iron, they cry, and the Lord heareth them.'

The third is in the words of the text, ' Fools for their transgressions are
afflicted ; their soul abhorreth all manner of meat.' He instanceth in sick-
ness, the most ordinary affliction, and shews that God hath a most particular
providence even in that.

The fourth is in ver. 23, ' Those that go down into the sea, they see '
experiments* of God's particular providence.

Since the fall, the life of a man is subject to a wondrous many incon-
veniences, which we have brought on us by our sins. Now in this variety
it is a comfortable thing to know God's care of us in our wanderings and
imprisonments, in our sickness, &c. But to omit the other three, and to
come to that that is proper to the place, that is, the instance of God's pro-
vidence in sickness.

' Fools, because of their transgressions, and because of their iniquities,
are afflicted,' &c.

* That is, ' have experience of.' — G.

136 A RESCUE FROM DEATH,

In these words you have,

First, The cause of this visitation, and of all the grievance he speaks of :
' transgression and iniquity.'

And then the kind of this visitation : ' sickness.'

And the extremity, in two branches : ' Their soul abhon-eth all manner
of meat ;' and secondly, ' They draw near to the gates of death.'

And then the carriage of the affected* and sick parties : ' They cry unto
the Lord in their distress.'

And the remedy, of the universal and great physician : ' He saves them
out of their distress.'

And the manner of this remedy : ' He sent his word and healed them ; '
his operative and commanding word, so as it works with his command.

Lastly, the fee that this high commander asks for ; all the tribute or
reward that he expects is praise and thanksgiving. ' Oh that men would
therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and his wondrous works for the
children of men,' &c.

So you see this Scripture contains several passages between God and
man, in misery and in deliverance. In misery : — God afflicts man for his sin.
The passage of man to God is, ' He cries to God.' God's passage back
again is his ' deliverance,' and then his return back again must be ' thanks-
giving.' So here is a double visitation, in justice God correcting sin ; and
then a visitation in mercy, upon their crying and praying, God restores
them ; and then man's duty, ' thanksgiving.' Bat to proceed in order.

' Fools, because of their transgressions,' &c.

Here you have first the quality of the persons set down.

' Fools.'

We must understand by * fools,' wicked fools ; not such fools as are to
be begged, as we say ; that are defective in their naturals, f but the ' wise
fools ' of the world. They are the chief of fools. However in the courts
of men they be not found fools, yet they are fools in God's esteem, who is
wisdom itself. Those that think themselves wise, that are conceitedly wise,
they are these fools here.

In the phrase of Scripture and the language of the Holy Ghost, every
sinner is a ' fool.' It were a disgraceful term if any man should give it ;
but let no man stumble at it. It comes from the wise God that knows what
wisdom is, and what is folly. If a fool shall call a man ' fool,' he doth'not
regard it ; but if a wise man, especially the ' God of wisdom,' call a man
' fool,' he hath reason to regard it. Who can judge better of wisdom than
God, who is * only wise ' ?

Why are wicked men fools ? and God's children, so far as they yield to their
lusts ?

In divers respects.

1. First, For lack of discerniny in all the carriage and passar/es of their
lives. You know a fool is such a one as cannot discern the difference of
things, that is defective in his judgment. Discerning and judgment, that
especially tries a fool, when he cannot discern between pearls and pebbles,
between jewels and ordinary base things. So wicked men are defective in
their judgments. They cannot discern aright between spiritual and heavenly
things, and other things. All your worldly fools, he hunts after and placeth his
happiness in things meaner than himself; he takes shadows for substances.

2. A fool is led icith his humour and his lust, even as the beast. So there
* Qu. 'afflicted'?— G. t That is, (natural) ' reason. '—G.

WITH A EETURN OF PRAISE.

137

is no wicked man that shakes off the fear of God, ' which is true wisdom,'
Prov. i. 7, but he is led with his humour, and passion, and affection to
some earthly thing. Now a man can never be wise and passionate, unless
in one case, when the good is so exceeding that no passion can be answer-
able ; as in zeal in divine matters. That will excuse all exorbitant car-
riage otherwise. When David ' danced before the ark,' a man would think
it had been a foohsh matter, except it had been a divine business, 2 Sam.
vi. 14. When the matter is wondrous great, that it deserves any pitch of
affection, then a man may be eager and wise ; but for the things of this
life, for a man to disquiet himself and others, to hunt after a ' vain shadow,'
as the psalmist saith, after riches and honour, and to neglect the main end
of a man's life, it is extreme folly. A man that is passionate in this respect
cannot be wise. All fools are passionate, and wicked men have their affec-
tions set deeply on somewhat else besides God. Because passion presents
things in a false glass, as when a man sees the sun through a cloud he
seems bigger. When men look on things in* the judgment of the Scripture,
and the Spirit of God, and right reason, but through affection, things
appear to them otherwise than they are, and themselves afterwards see
themselves fools. Take a worldling on his deathbed, or in hell. He sees
himself a fool then. When his drunkenness is past ; when he is come to
himself and is sober, he sees that he hath catched, all his hfetime, after
shadows. Wicked men that are carried with their lusts to earthly things,
they cannot be wise. Therefore the ' rich man' in the gospel, is called a
' fool,' Luke xii. 20 ; and in Jer xvii. 11, he speaks of a man that 'labours
all his lifetime, and in the end is a fool.' Is not he a fool that will carry
a burden, and load himself in his journey more than he needs ? And is
not he a spiritual fool that ' loads himself with thick clay,' as the prophet
calls it, Hab. ii. 6, and makes his pilgrimage more cumbersome than he
needs ? Is not he a ' fool' that lays the heaviest weight on the weakest ?
that puts off the heaviest burden of repentance to the time of sickness, and
trouble, and death, when all his troubles meet in a centro, as it were, and
he hath enough to do to conflict with his sickness ?

3. Again, He is a ' fool' that will play with edge tools, that makes a sport
of sin. He is a ' fool' that provokes his betters ; that shoots up arrows
and casts up stones, that shall fall on his own head. He that darts out
oaths and blasphemies against God, that shall return back upon his own
pate, Ps. vii. 16. Many such fools there are. ' God will not hold them
guiltless,' Exod. xx. 7.

4. He is a ' fool' that knows not, or forgets his end. Every wicked man
forgets the end wherefore he lives in the world. He comes here into the
world, and lives, and is turned out of the world again, and never considers
the work that he hath to do here,' but is carried like a ' fool,' with affec-
tions and passions to earthly things, as if he had been born only for them.
A wise man hath an end prefixed in all that he doth, and he works to that
end. Now there is no man but a sound sanctified Christian, that hath a
right end, and that works to that end. Other men pretend they have an
end, and thej'' would serve God, &c.

They pretend heaven, but they work to the earthward ; like moles, they
dig in the earth. They work not to the end they pretend to fix to them-
selves. All men, how witty soever they are otherwise, in worldly respects,
they are but ' fools.' As we say of owls, they can see, but it is by night :
so wicked men are witty, but it is in works of darkness. They are wise ' in
* Qu, ' not in ' ?— Ed.

138

A RESCUE FROM DEATH,

their own generation,' among men like themselves. But this is not the
life wherein folly and wisdom can be discerned so well. It will appear at
the hour of death, and the day of judgment. Then those will be found
wise that are wise for eternity ; that have provided how it shall go with
them when all earthly things shall fail them ; and those will be ' fools' that
have only a particular wit for the particular passages of this life ; to con-
trive particular ends and neglect the main. They are penny wise and pound
foolish. Ahithophel, a witty wiseman, his * coimsel was an oracle, yet he
was not wise to prevent his own destruction, 2 Sam. xvi. 23.

5. He is a madman, a ' fool,' that hurts and icounds himself. None else
will do so. Wicked carnal men, they wound, and hurt, and stab their own
consciences. Oh, if any man should do them but the thousandth part of the
harm that they do themselves every day, they would not endure it. They gall
and load their consciences with many sins, and they do it to themselves.
Therefore it is a deserved title that is given them. God meets with the pride
of men in this term of folly. For a wicked man, above all things, is careful to
avoid this imputation of ' fool.' Account him what you will, so you account
him a shrewd man withal, that can overreach others, that he is crafty and
wise, he glories in the reputation of wisdom, though God account him a
fool, and he shall be found so afterward ; and to abate the pride of men, he
brings a disgraceful term over their wit and learning, and calls them fools.

Use 1. This should abase any man that is not a right and sound Christian,
that the ' God of wisdom,' and the Scripture — that is, God's word — esteems
of all wicked men, be what they will, to be * fools,' and that in their own
judgments, if they be not atheists, if they will gi-ant the principles they
pretend to believe.

Let this, therefore, be an aggravation in your thoughts when you are
tempted to commit any sin. Oh, besides that it is a transgression and
rebellion against God's commandment, it is ' folly in Israel,' and this will
be ' bitterness in the end.'

Use 2. Is he not a ' fool' that will do that in an instant, that he may
repent many years after ? Is he not a foolish man, in matter of diet, that
will take that that he shall complain of a long time after ? None will be
so foolish in outward things. So when we are tempted to sin, think. Is it
not folly to do this, when the time will come that I shall wish it undone
again, with the loss of a world if I had it to give ?

Use 3. And beg of God the xvisdoni of the Holy Ghost, to judge aright of
things, the ' eye-salve of the Spirit of God, to discern of things that differ,'
Rev. iii. 18 ; to judge spiritual riches to be best, and spiritual nobility and
excellency to be best ; and to judge of sinful courses to be base, however
otherwise painful.* Let us labour for grace. ' The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom,' Prov. i. 7. Those that do not fear the Lord, they
have no wisdom.

Use 4. And pass notf for the vain censures of wicked men. Thou art
hindered from the practice of religious duties, and from a conscionablej
course of life. Why ? Perhaps thou shalt be accounted a fool. By whom ?
By those that are fools indeed, in the judgment of him who is wisdom
indeed, God himself. Who would care to be accounted a fool of a fool ?
We see the Scripture judgeth wicked men here to be ' fools.'

We must not extend it only to wicked men, but even likewise God's
children, when they yield to their corruptions and passions, they are foolish

* Qu. ' gainful '?— Ed. J That is, 'conscientious.'— G.

t That is, ' heed not.' — G.

WITH A KETUEN OF PRAISE.

139

for the time : in Ps. xxxviii. 5, ' My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of
my foolishness ;' and in Ps. Ixxiii. 22, ' So foolish was I and ignorant,' &c.

Therefore, when any base thought of God's providence comes in our
mind, or any temptation to sin, let us think it ' folly ; ' and when we are
overtaken with any sin, let us befool ourselves, and judge it, as God doth,
to be foolishness. This is the ground and foundation of repentance. So
much for the quality of the persons here described, ' fools.'

I come to the cause.

* Because of their transgressions, and because of their iniquities.'

Transgression especially hath reference to rebellion against God and his
ordinances in the first table. Iniquity hath reference to the breach of the
second table, against men ; and both these have their rise from folly. For
want of wisdom causeth rebellion against God, and iniquity against men.
All breaches of God's will come from spiritual folly.

Why doth he begin with transgressions against the first table, and then
iniquities, the breach of the second ?

Because all breaches of the second table issue from the breach of ihe
first. A man is never unjust to his neighbours, that doth not rebel against
God's will in the first table ; and the foundation of obedience and duty to
man, it riseth from man's obedience to God. Therefore the second table
is like the first : that is, our love to our neighbour is like to our love of
God ; not only like it, but it springs from it. For all comes from the love
of God. Therefore the first command of the first table runs through all
the commandments. ' Thou shalt honour God ; ' and honour man, because
we honour God. A man never denies obedience to his superior, to the
magistrate, &c., but he denies it to God first ; a man never wrongs man,
but he disobeys God first. Therefore, the apostles lay the duties of the
second table in the Scriptures upon the first. St Paul always begins his
epistles with the duties to God and religion, and when he hath discharged
that, he comes to parents, and masters, and children, and servants, and
such particular duties ; because the spring of our duty to man is our duty
to God, and the first justice is the justice of religion to God. _ When we
are not just to give God his due, thereupon come all breaches in our civil
conversation and commerce with men. For want of the fear of God, men
do this : as Joseph said, ' How shall I do this, and ofiend God ? ' Gen.
xxxix. 9 ; and Abraham, he had a conceit they would abuse his wife, * Surely
the fear of God is not here,' Gen. xx. 13. Therefore he thought they would
not be afraid to do anything. He that fears not God, if opportunity serve,
he will not be afraid to violate the second table. He that fears God, he
will reason, ' How shall I do this,' to wrong another in his name and repu-
tation, or in his estate, and sin against God ? For I cannot sin against
man, but I must first sin against God. That is the reason he sets it down
thus, transgressions and iniquities.

See an unhappy succession of sin, that where there is transgression there
will be iniquity ; when a man yields to lust once, presently he breaks upon
God's due, and then upon man's. One sin draws on another._ _ As we see
David giving way to one sin, it brought another ; so the giving way to
transgression, neglecting the word of God and duties of religion, presently
another follows, neglect of duty to men. ^

Use. Take heed of the beginnings of sin. There are degrees jn Satan s
school from ill to worse, till we come to worst of all ; and there is no stay-
ing. It is like the descent down a steep hill. Let us stop in the beginnmg

140

A RESCUE FROM DEATH,

by any means. As we would avoid iniquity, let us take heed of trans-
gression.

' Are afflicted.'

He means, especially, that affliction of sickness, as appears by the words
following.

Doct. Sin is the cause of all sickness.

* Fools, for their transgressions and iniquities, are afflicted.' For God's
quarrel is especially against the soul, and to the body because of the soul.
I will not dwell on this point, having spoken of it at large on another text,
1 Cor. xi. 31.*

Use 1. The use that I will make of it now, shall be, first of all, if sin be the
cause of all sickness, let %is justify God and condemn ourselves : complain of
ourselves, and not of God. ' Wherefore doth the living man complain,'
Lam. iii. 39, and murmur and fret ? Man suffereth for his sin. Justify
God, and judge ourselves. ' I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I
have sinned against him,' Micah vii. 9. Judge ourselves, and we shall not
be judged,' 1 Cor. xi. 31.

2. Then again, is sin the cause of sickness ? It should teach us patience.

• I held my tongue, because thou. Lord, didst it,' Ps. xxxix. 2. Shall not
a man be patient in that he hath procured by his own evil and sin ?

3. And search ourselves ; for usually it is for some particular sin, which
conscience will tell a man of; and sometimes the kind of the punishment
will tell a man. For sins of the body, God punisheth in the body. He
pays men home in their own coin. ' What measure a man measureth to
others shall be measured to him again,' Mat. vii. 2. If a man have been
cruel to others, God will stir up those that shall be so to him ; therefore
we should labour to part with our particular transgressions and iniquities.
It is a general truth for all ills whatsoever, as well as this of sickness.
Therefore we should first of all go to God by confession of sin. It is a
preposterous course that the athestical careless world takes ; where the
physician ends, there the divine begins ; when they know not what to do.
If diseases come from sin, then make use of the divine first, to certify the
conscience, and to acquaint a man with his own mercy. First, to search
them, and let them see the guilt of their sins, and then to speak comfort
to them, and to set accounts straight between God and them, as in Ps.
xxxii. 4 — an excellent place — David ' roared ; his moisture was turned into
the drought of summer.' What course doth he take ? He doth not run
to the physician presently, but goes to God. ' Then said I.' It was an
inward resolution and speech of the mind. Then I concluded with myself,

* I will confess my sin to God, and thou forgavest my iniquities and sins,'
Ps. xxxii. 5. So body and soul were healed at once. Divinity herein
transcends all other arts ; not only corrupt nature and corrupt courses, but
all other. For the physician he looks to the cause of the sickness out of
a man or in a man ; out of a man, and then especially in contagious sick-
ness, he looks to the influence of the heavens. In such a 3''ear, such con-
junctions and such eclipses have been ; he looks to the infection of the
air, to subordinate causes, to contagious company, and to diet, &c. (a).
And then in a man, to the distemper of the humours and of the spirits.
When the instrument of nature is out of tune, it is the cause of sickness.
But the divine, and every Christian, — that should be a divine in this respect,
— goes higher, and sees all the discord between God and us. There is not

* Cf. Sibbes's ' Glance of Heaven ' in Vol. IV.— G.

WITH A RETURN OF PRAISE. 141

that sweet harmony there ; and so all the jars in second causes come from
God as the cause inflicting : from sin, as the cause demeriting. The divine
considers those two alway. The physician looks to the inward distemper
and the outward contagion ; and this is well, and may be done without
sin. But men must join this too, to look into conscience, and look up to
God, together with looking for help to the physician, because we have
especially to deal with God.

I would this were considered, that we might carry ourselves more Chris-
tian-like under any affliction whatsoever. What is the reason that people
murmur, and struggle, and strive, ' as a bull in a net,' as the prophet
speaks, Isa. h. 20, when God hampers them in some judgment ? They
look to the second causes, and never look to clear the conscience of sin,
nor never look to God, when indeed the ground of all is God offended
by sin.

' Fools for their transgressions are afflicted.'

We by our sins put a rod into God's hand — ' a rod for the fool's back,'
as Solomon saith, Prov. xxvi. 3; and when we will befools, we must needs
endure the scourge and rod in one kind or other. Those that will sin
must look for a rod. It is the best reward of wicked and vain fools, that
* make a jest of sin,' Prov. xiv. 9 — as the wise man saith, ' They cast
firebrands, and say, Am I not in jest?' Prov. xxvi. 18 — that rail and
scorn at good things; that swear and carry themselves in a loose, ridiculous,
scandalous fashion, as if God did not eye their carriage ; and yet ' Am I
not in jest ?' Well, it is no jesting matter. Sin is like a secret poison ;
perhaps it doth not work presently. As there are some kind of subtile
poisons made in these days, — wherein the devil hath whetted men's wits, —
that will work perhaps a year after, so sin, if it be once committed, perhaps
it doth not kill presently, but ' there is death in the pot,' 2 Kings iv. 40.
Thou art a child of death as soon as ever thou hast committed sin ; as
Salvian saith well, ' Thou perishest before thou perish' (b). The sentence
is upon thee. Thou art a dead man. God, to wait for thy repentance,
prolongs thy days ; but as soon as thou hast sinned without repentance,
thou art a ' child of death.' And as poison, that works secretly a while,
yet in time it appears ; so at last ' the fruit of sin will be death.' Sin
and death came in together. Take heed of all sin ; it is no dallying
matter.

' Their soul abhors all manner of meat.'

This is one branch of the extremity of the sickness, the loathing of
meat ; for God hath put a correspondency between food that is necessary
for man and man's relish. For man being in this world to be supported,
the natural moisture being to be supplied and repaired by nourishment, as
it is spent by the natural heat which feeds upon it ; therefore God hath
put a sweetness into meat, that man might delight to do that which is
necessary ; for who would care for meat if it were not necessary ? There-
fore, being necessary, God hath put delightful tastes in meats, to draw men
to the use of them, to preserve their being for the serving of him. Now
when these things savour not, when the relish of a man is distempered that
he cannot judge aright of meats, when the palate is vitiated, there must
needs follow sickness. For a man cannot do that that should maintain his
strength ; he cannot feed on the creature ; therefore the psalmist setting
down the extremity of sickness, he saith, ' Their soul abhorreth all manner
of meat.' This the great physician of heaven and earth sets down as a

112 A RESCUE FEOM DEATH,

symptom of a sick state, when one cannot relish and digest meat. Ex-
perience seals this truth, and proves it to be true.

You see, then, the happiness of epicures, how unstable and vain it is,
whose chief good is in the creature ! God by sickness can make them
disrelish all ' manner of meat ; ' and where is the summum honum then of
all your belly-gods, your sensual persons ?

Again, In that he saith, ' Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat,' it
should teach us to bless God not only for meat, but for stomachs to eat.
It is a blessing common, and therefore forgotten. It is a double blessing
when God provides daily for our outward man, and then gives a stomach
to relish his goodness in the creature. Sometimes a poor man wants meat,
and hath a stomach ; sometimes a rich man wants a stomach, when he hath
meat. They that have both have cause to bless God, because it is a judg-
ment when God takes away the appetite, that men ' abhor and loathe all
manner of meat.'

Therefore, if we would maintain thankfulness to God, labour to thank
God for common blessings. What if God should take away a man's
stomach ? We see his state here : he is ' at the gates of death.' There-
fore thank God that he maintains us with comforts in our pilgrimage ; and
withal, that he gives us strength to take the comfort of the creature.

We see here again one rule how to converse with them that are sick.
Blessed is he that understands the estate of the afflicted and sick, not to
take it ill to see them wayward. It comes not from the mind, but from
the distemper of the bod3\ As we bear with children, so we must bear
with men in those distempers, if they have food and yet loathe it. You
see how it is with men in that case, * their soul abhorreth all manner of
meat.' It should teach us to sympathise with those that are sick, if we
see them in these distempers.

The next branch of the extremity is,

* They draw near the gates of death.'

Death is a great commander, a great tyrant ; and hath gates to sit in,
as judges and magistrates used to ' sit in the gates.'* There are things
implied in this phrase.

1. First, ' They draw near to the gates of death ;' that is, they were
' near to death ;' as he that draws near the gates of a city is near the city,
because the gates enter into the city.

2. Secondly, Gates are applied to death for authority. They were
almost in death's jurisdiction. Death is a great tyrant. He rules over
all the men in the world, over kings and potentates, and over mean men ;
and the greatest men fear death most. He is * the king of fears,' as Job
calls him. Job xviii. 14 ; ay, and the fear of kings. Yet death that is
thus feared in this life by wicked men, at the day of judgment, of all things
in the world they shall desire death most ; according to that in the Apoca-
lypse, ' they shall desire death, and it shall not come to them,' Piev. ix. G.
They shall subsist to eternal misery. That that men are most afraid of in
this life, that they shall wish most to come to them in the world to come —
Oh that I might die ! what a pitiful state are wicked men in ! — Therefore
it is called the ' gate of death.' It rules and overrules all mankind.
Therefore it is said ' to reign,' Rom. v. 21. Death and sin came in to-
gether. Sin was the gate that let in death, and ever since death reigned,
and will, till Christ perfectly triumph over it, who is the King of that

* Cf. Gen. sis. 1 ; 2 Sam. iii. 27 ; Job ssxi. 21 ; Ps. Ixix. 12.— G.

WITH A EETUEN OF PEMSE. 143

lord and commander, and hath 'the key of hell and death,' Eev. i. 18.
To wicked men, I say, he is a tyrant, and hath a gate ; and when they go
through the ' gate of death,' they go to a worse, to a lower place, to hell.
It is the trap-door to hell.

3. Thirdly, By the 'gate of death' is meant not only the authority, but
the 230wer of death ; as in the gospel, 'the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it,' Mat. xvi. 18 : that is, the power and strength of hell. So here
it implies the strength of death, which is very great, for it subdues all. It
is the executioner of God's justice.

Use. If death hath such a jurisdiction, and power, and strength, let us
labour to disarm it beforehand. It is in our power to make death stingless,
and toothless, and harmless ; nay, we may make it advantageous, for the
' gate of death ' may become the gate of happiness. Let us labour to have
our part and portion in Christ, who hath the ' key of hell and death,' who
hath overcome and conquered this tyrant : ' death, where is thy sting ?
grave, where is thy victory ? ' ' Thanks be unto God, who hath given
us victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord,' 1 Cor. xv. 55, 57, that
now we need not fear death ; that though death have a gate, yet it is a
gate to let us into heaven, as it is a door to let the wicked into hell. So
much for that.

In the next place, we come to their carriage in their extremity.

* They cried to God in their trouble.'

This is the carriage of man in extreme ills, if he have any fear of God
in him, to pray ; and then prayers are cries. They are darted out of the
heart, as it were, to heaven. It is said, ' Christ made strong cries,' lieb.
V. ,7- In extremity, prayers are ' cries.' Hence I observe briefly these
things.

Doct. That God suffers men to fall into extreme ills, even to the gates of
death ; that there is hut a step heticeen them and death.

Why?

Reason 1. To wean them perfectly from the ivorld. To make them more
thankful when they recover ; for what is the reason that men are so slight
in thanksgiving ? Usually the reason is, they did not conceive that they
were in such extreme danger as they were.

2. Likewise he suffers men to fall into extreme sickness that he may
have all the glorj/, for it was his doing. There was no second cause to
help here, for their soul ' abhorred all manner of meat, and they were
even at the gates of death.' Now, when all second causes fail, then God
is exalted. Therefore he suffers men to fall into extremity. The greater
the malady, the more is the glory of the physician.

The second thing is this, as God brings his children into extremity, so

God's children i)i extrentity they cry to him.

Extremity of afflictions doth force prayers : ' In their affliction they will
seek me early.' When all second causes fail, then we go to God. Nature
therefore is against atheism. As one observes, that naturally men run to
God in extremity (c) — ' Lord, succour me' — so, especially in the church, in
extremity, God's people cry to God ; and as afflictions, so particularly this
of sickness of body drives men to God. God should not hear of us many
times, unless he should come near us by afflictions, and deep afflictions.
' Out of the deep have I cried,' Ps. cxxx. 1. God brings us to the deep,
and then we cry. Our nature is so naught,* that God should not hear of
* That is, ' naughty' = wicked. — G.

144 ' A RESCUE FROM DEATH,

US, as I said, unless lie send some messenger after us, some affliction to
bring us home, as Absalom dealt by Joab when he ' fired his corn.' In
the gospel, Christ had never heard of many people, had it not been for some .
infirmity. But blessed arc those sicknesses and infirmities that occasion
us to go to God, that makes us cry to God. It was the speech of a heathen,
' We are best when we are weakest' ((/). Why? As he saith very well,
* Who is ambitious, voluptuous, or covetous for the world when he is sick,
when he sees the vanity of these things ? '

This should make us submit more meekly unto God, when we are under
his hand, when we are his prisoners by sickness, when he casts us on
our sick beds, because God is working our good, he is di'awing us nearer
to him.

' Then they cried to him.'

So we see, then, that i^rayer it is a remechj in a remediless estate, when
there is no other remedy ; and this is one difference between a child of
God and another. In extremity, a carnal man that hath not grace, he hath
not a spirit of prayer to go to God ; but a child of God he cries to God.
He had acquaintance with God in the time of health. Therefore he goes
boldly to God as a father in the time of extremity. God's children can
answer God's dealing ; for as he brings his children to extremity, when
there is no second cause to help, so they answer him by faith. In extremity,
when there is nothing to trust unto, they trust him ; when there is no
physic in the world that can charm the disease, they have a spirit of faith
to answer God's dealing in the greatest misery, as Job saith, ' Though he
kill me, yet will I trust in him,' Job xiii. 15.

For God is not tied to second causes, and therefore if he have ' delight
in us,' and if he have any service for us to do, he can recover us from the
' gates of death,' nay, from death itself; as we see Christ in the gospel
raised from the dead — and at the resurrection he will raise us from death —
much more can he raise us from the ' gates of death,' when we are ' near
death.'

Therefore, considering that prayer is a remedy in all maladies, in a
remediless estate, let us labour to have a spiiit of prayer, and to be in such
a state as we may pray.

What state is that ?

1. First, Talie heed of heinrj in league with any nn. ' If I regard iniquity
in my heart, God will not hear my prayer,' Ps. Ixvi. 18 ; nay, he will not
hear others' prayers for us. Oh what a pitiful state is it when God will
not hear us nor others for us. * Pray not for this people,' saith God to
Jeremiah, ' and if Noah, Daniel, and Job stood before me, they should but
deliver their own souls,' Ezek. xiv. 14. If a man be in a peremptory
course of sin, and will not be reclaimed, but is like the ' deaf adder, that
will not be charmed,' Ps. Iviii. 4, God will not hear prayers for him. Will
God hear a rebel when he comes to him for mercy, and is in a course
opposite to God's will ? As if a traitor should come to sue for pardon with
a dagger in his hand, which were to increase the treason ; so when a man
comes to God and cries to him, and yet purposeth to live in sin, and his
conscience tells him that he ofters violence to God by his sins, and lives in
rebellious courses, God will not hear his prayers.

2. Again, If we would be in such a state as God may accept us when we
come to him, let us hear God ichen he cries to its. He cries to us in the
ministry of the word : ' Wisdom hath lift up her voice,' Prov. i. 20 ; and
this is God's course. He will hear us when we hear him. ' He that turns

WITH A EETURN OF PEAISE. 145

his ear from hearing of the law, his prayer shall be abominable,' Prov.
xxviii. 9. Those that do not attend upon God's ordinances, that will have
a kind of devotion private to themselves, and avoid the public ordinance,
that fear perhaps they shall hear somewhat that would awaken their con-
science, and they would not ' be tormented before their time,' Mat. viii. 29,
let them consider — it is a terrible speech of Solomon — ' He that turns his
ear from hearing the law, his prayer shall be abominable.' Let us take
heed. It is a fearful thing to be in such an estate, that neither our own
prayers nor others, shall be regarded for us ; and let any man judge, if
we will not hear God speak to us, is it fit that he should hear us speaking
to him ?

And before I leave the point, let me press it a little further. At this
time We have cause to bless God for the deliverance of the city.-'-- Oh, but let
all that have the spirit of prayer, that have any familiarity with God, improve
all their interest in heaven at this time. Do we not conceive what danger
we are in ? what enemies we have provoked ? What if we be free from
the sickness, are we not in danger of worse matters than the sickness ?
' Is it not worse to fall into the hands of our enemies ?' 2 Sam. xxiv. 14.
Have we not great, provoked, cruel, idolatrous enemies ? Therefore let us
jointly now, all cry to God, and importi;ne him, that he would be good to
the State ; that as he hath given us a pledge of his favour in delivering us
from the plague, so he would not be weary of doing good unto us, but that
he would still make it a token of further favours and deliverances hereafter ;
that as he delivered us in former times, in '88, f and magnified his mercy
to us, so now he would not expose us to the cruelty of idolatrous enemies,
* whose mercies are cruel,' Prov. xii. 10. Let us stir up ourselves.
Security and carelessness alway foreruns one destruction or other.

Prayer will do a great deal more good now, than when trouble hath
overtaken us ; for now it is a sign it comes from a religious seeking of God,
then it comes from self-love. There is a great deal of diflerence when a
malefactor seeks to the judge before the time of the assizes, and when he
seeks to him at the present time ; for then it is merely out of self-respect,
and not respect to him. If we seek to God now, he will single and mark
out those that mourn for the sins of the time, and pour out their spirits to
him in prayer, that he would still dwell and continue the means of salvation
amongst us ; when God, I say, ' comes to gather his jewels,' Mai. iii. 17,
he will single and call out them as peculiar to himself.

Therefore let us in all our prayers put in the church. Things do more
than speak. They cry to us to cry to God earnestly. Put case we be
not in trouble ourselves, our prayers will be the more acceptable. Before
trouble come, it is the only way to prevent it, as it is the only way to rescue
us when we are in trouble.

I come now to the remedy.

' He saved them out of their distress.'

God is a physician, good at all manner of sicknesses. It is no matter what
the disease be, if God be the physician. Though they be as these ' at the
gates of death,' he can fetch them back. Herein God difiers from all other
physicians.

First of all, he is a general physician. He can heal a land, a whole
kingdom, of sickness, of pestilence, and as it is in 2 Chron. vii. 14.

* The plague of 1625-6.— G.

t That is, 1588, from the Armada. — G.

VOL. VI. K

146

A RESCUE FEOM DEATH,

Then he is a physician of body and soul, of both parts. And then he is
not tied to means.

Other physicians can cure, but they must have means. Other physicians
cannot cure all manner of diseases, nor in all places, but God can cure all.
' He saved them out of their distress.'

Other physicians cannot be alway present, but God is so to every one
of his patients. He is a compassionate, tender, present physician.

Use. Which should encourage us in any extremity, especially in sickness
of body, to hare recourse to God, and never to despair though we be brought
never so low. He that can raise the dead bodies can raise us out of any
sickness. Therefore let us use the means ; and when there is no means,
trust God, for he can work beyond means and without means.

' They cried to the Lord, and he saved them out of their distress.' It
was the fruit of their prayers.

Doct. There was never any ijrayer from the beginning of the world made to
God successlesshj .

What, should I speak of prayer ! Our very breathings are known to God,
when we cannot speak, our sighs ; as it is Ps. xxxviii. 9, ' My groans and
sighs are not hid from thee.' God hath a ' bottle for our tears,' Ps. Ivi. 8,
and preserves our sighs and groans. There is nothing that is spiritual in
us but God regards, as in Eom. viii. 26, ' We know not what to ask, but
the Spirit of God stirreth up in us sighs and groans that cannot be ex-
pressed.' And God hears the voice of the sighs of his own Spirit.

Let us also be exhorted'from this issue to ' cry unto the Lord ;' for there
was never any man did sow prayers in the breast and bosom of God, but
he received the fruit of it. He is a God ' hearing prayer.' He will not
lose his attribute. Nay, further, mark, the instances in this psalm are
not made only of men in the church, but likewise of men out of the church,
of men that have not the true religion. They pray to God, as creatures
to the Creator ; and though God have not their souls, yet he will not be
beholding to any man for duties. If Ahab do but hypocritically fast,
Ahab shall have outward deliverance for his outward humiliation ; and
these men mentioned in the text, if they call to God but as creatures,
and not to idols, God will regard them in outward things, and deliver
them. God will not be in any man's debt for any service to him, though
it be outward.

And do we think that he that regards * dogs' out of the church, will
neglect his children in the church ? He that regards heathen men when
they pray to him in their extremity, and delivers them to shew his over-
flowing bounty and goodness, will he not regard his own children, that have
the spirit of adoption, of supplication, and prayer ; that put up their suits
and supplications in the mediation and sweet name of Christ ? Will he
not regard the name and intercession of his Son and of his Spirit, the Holy
Ghost, stirring up prayers in them, and the state of his children, being his
by adoption, since he regards the very heathen ?

Nay, more than so, ' God hears the very young ravens,' Job xxxviii. 41,
and spreads a table for every living thing ; and will not sutler them to die
for hunger, but provides for them, because they are his creatures. And
will he not for his children, those that he hath taken to be so near him, to
be heirs of heaven and happiness ? Let us, I say, be encouraged to cry
unto the Lord upon all occasions. If God be so good as to dehver sinful
men, — that have nothing in them but the principles of nature, — when they
fly to God in prayer, as the author and preserver of nature, much more

WITH A KETUEN OF PRAISE. 147

will he hear his own children. ' He will give his Spirit to them that ask
him ' Luke xi. 13.

Obj. But here may an objection he made, I have cried long ! I am hoarse
with crying ! I have waited a long time ! I have been a long time sick, or
annoyed with some particular trouble !f and God seems, as it were, to
stop his ears, to harden his heart against me, to shut up his bowels of
compassion and pity, therefore I were as good give over as continue still
crying and not be heard.

Ans. I answer, there is no one duty almost, more pressed in Scripture
than ' waiting and watching to prayer.' Wait still. Hath not God waited
thy leisure long enough, and wilt not thou wait on him ?

A patient, when he feels his body distempered by physic. Oh, he cries
out, partly for the physic, and partly for the sickness, that trouble him
both together, and make civil war in his body, yet notwithstanding the
physician wisely lets it work. He shall have no cordial, nor nothing to
hinder it ; he lets it go on till the physic have wrought well, and carried away
the malignant matter, that he may be the better for it, and [in] that, he is a
loving and tender physician. Yet so God, when we are in trouble, it is as
physic. We cry, but God he turns the glass* as the physicians do. Nay,
this time shall be expired. It shall work so long. Till thy pride be taken
away, thou shalt be humbled thoroughly ; till thou be weaned from thy
former wicked pleasures ; till thou be prepared to receive further blessings.
Therefore they cry and cry, and God defers to hear the ' voice of his chil-
dren.' In the mean time he loves to hear the ' cry of his children,' and
their prayer is as ' sweet incense ;' yet he defers still. But all is for the
patient's good. Be not weary of waiting. It is a great mercy that he makes
thee able to continue crying, that thou hast the Spirit of prayer ; that thou
canst pour out thy soul to God. It is a great mercy, and so account of it.

Perhaps thou hast not cast out thy Jonah, thy Achan ; that there is
some particular sin unrepented of; and thou criest and criest, but thy sin
cries louder. Thy pride or thy oppression cries, thy wicked course cries.
Thou criest unto God, and there is another thing cries in thee, that cries
vengeance as thou doest for mercy. Therefore search out thy Achan ; cast
out thy beloved sin ; see * if thou regard iniquity in thy heart,' if thou
regard any pleasing, or profitable, or gainful sin ; and never think that God
will hear thee till that be out, for it will outci-y thy prayers.

The next thing is the manner of God's cure.

* He sent his word and healed them.'

What word ?

His secret command, his will.

Let such a thing be, as in the creation, * Let there be light,' &c. Besides
his word written, there is his word creating, and preserving things created ;
and so here, restoring them that were sick, ' He sent his word and healed
them ;' and so at the resurrection, his word, his voice shall raise our bodies
again. It is a strange manner of cure for God to cure by his word, by his
command. It shews that God hath an universal command of all things in
the world, in heaven and earth, over devils, and over sicknesses ; as it is
said in the gospel, ' He rebuked the sicknesses,' Mat. xvii. 18. He can
rebuke the agues, the plague, and the pestilence, and they shall be gone
by his word, as the centurion said, ' I am a man that have servants under
me : and I say to one. Come, and he cometh ; and to another, Go, and he
* That is, ' hour or time-glass.' — G.

148 A RESCUE FROM DEATH,

goeth,' Mat. y'm. 8, seq. ; so thou hast all things under thee, thou art God ;
and if thou say to a disease, ' Come, it cometh ;' and if thou say, ' Go, it
goeth.' God ' sent his word of command and healed them.' It is but ' a
word of God' to heal, but ' a word of God' to strike. He is the ' Lord of
hosts.' ' If he do but hiss,' as the prophet saith, ' for the fly of Egypt,'
Isa. vii. 18, if he do but call for an enemy, they come at his word ; as we
see in Pharaoh's plagues, the flies and frogs, all things, obey his word.

There is a secret obedience in all things to God, when his will is that
they shall do this or that. Why doth the sea keep his bounds, whenas the
nature and position of the sea is to be above the earth ? It is the command
of God, that hath said. Let it be there, and ' hither shall thy proud waves
go, and no further,' Job xxxviii. 11. I might give many instances how
God doth all by his word. The devils are at his word ; the whales ; the
sea, when Christ rebukes it, obeys.

Use. It should teach us not to displease this God, that can strike us in
the midst of our sins even with a word. Let us fear this God. Put case
we had no enemy in the world : God can arm a man's humours against him.
He can raise the spirit and soul against itself, and make it fight against
itself by desperate thoughts. He needed not foreign forces for Ahithophel
and Saul, he could arm their own souls against themselves. And when he
will take down the greatest giant in the world, he needs not foreign forces.
It is but working of a disease, but giving way to a humour, but inflaming
the spirits, and the soul * shall abhor all manner of meat.'

Again, He gives a command, a rebuke, and they are gone 2)resenthj.
Therefore let us not offend this great God, that is commander of heaven
and earth ; let us labour to please him, and it is no matter who else we
displease. For he hath all things at his command, even the ' hearts of
kings as the rivers of water,' Prov. xxi. 1. When Esau sought for Jacob
to hurt him, there was a secret command God set upon him to love him.
Therefore we should fear him, and all other things shall fear us. We need
fear nothing, so we have a care to fear God, further than in God and for
God. But not so to fear them, as to do evil for them and offend the great
God, that can with a word command sickness to come, or bid it begone.

Again, In that God, when all second causes fail, can ' heal by his word,'
therefore let tis never be discouraged from jy^aying. e Though we see a hurly-
burly and tumult in the church, though we see all Europe in combustion,
and the church driven into a narrow corner, let us not give over prayer.
For Christ, that with a word commanded ' the waves to be still,' and ' the
devils to be gone,' and they presently obeyed him, he can still the waves
of the church ; he can put a ' hook into the nostrils' of his enemies, and
draw them which way he please ; he can still all with ' his word.' There-
fore, howsoever things seem to run contrary and opposite to our desires,
yet let us not give over. He that sees no ground of hope in carnal fleshly
reason, let him despair of nothing. Despair shuts the gate and door of
mercy and hope, as it were. You see here, when all means fail, when
they were ' at the very gates' and entry of death, God fetcheth them back
again. How ? With physic ? No. He is not tied to physic. There is
diflerence between God and between nature and art. Nature and art can
do nothing without means ; but the God of nature and art can do it with
his word. How made he this heaven and earth, this glorious fabric ? With
his word, 'Let there be light, and there was light,' &c., Gen. i. 3. And
how shall he restore all again ? With his mighty commanding word.
How doth he preserve things ? By his word. How are things multi-

WITH A RETURN OF PRAISE. 149

plied ? By his word, ' Increase and multiply,' a word of blessing. He
doth all things with his word.

So he can confound his enemies with a word. Nay, Christ in his greatest
abasement, when they came with staves and arms to take him, ' \Vhom
seek ye ? ' saith he. That word ' struck down all the officers of the Scribes
and Pharisees ; they fell flat on the ground,' John xviii. 4, seq. Could he
in his humiliation, before his great abasement on the cross, strike down his
enemies with his word ? "What shall he do at the day of judgment, when all
flesh shall appear before him ? And what can he do now at the right hand
of God in heaven ? Let us never despair, what state soever we be in, in
our own persons, or in respect of the church or commonwealth. Let us
yet pray, yet solicit God, and wrestle with him ; for we see here, when
they were at the ' gates of death,' he fetcheth them again with * his word.'
He can fetch things again when they are at destruction, as it were. When
man's wit is at a loss, that he knoweth not what course to take, God with
a word can turn all things acjain.

' Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and for
his wonderful works to the children of men ! Let them sacrifice the sac-
rifice of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.'

You see that God, the great physician, he is good at all diseases. He
is never set at anything, for he can create helps and remedies, of nothing.
If there be none in nature, he can create peace to the soul. In the midst
of trouble of conscience, God can make things out of nothing, nay, out of
contraries. You see here what this great physician hath done. He fetched
them ' from the gates of death, when their soul abhorred all manner of
meat ;' and what doth he require for all this great cure ? Surely the text
tells us he looks for nothing but praise.

' Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness,' &c.

In which words you have these circumstances considerable, together with
the substance of the duty :

First, The persons who must praise God : * Oh that men would praise
the Lord.'

And then the duty they are to perform : * to praise God,' to * sacrifice
to God,' to ' declare his works ' — one main duty expressed by three terms.

The third is for what they should praise him : ' for his goodness.' It
is the spring of all, for all particular actions do come from his nature.
His nature is goodness itself, and indeed all other attributes are founded
on goodness. Why is he gracious, and merciful, and long- suffering ?
Because he is good. This is the primitive attribute.

And then another thing for which we must praise him : ' for his wondrous
works for the children of men.'

Fourthly, The manner how this should be done : * with rejoicing and
singing,' as the word signifies {e), ' declare his works with rejoicing.' For
as all holy actions must be done joyfully and cheerfully, so especially
praise : * God loveth a cheerful giver,' 2 Cor. ix 7, much more a cheerful
thanksgiver, for cheerfulness is the very nature of thanksgiving. It is a
dead sacrifice, of thanksgiving, it is a dead sacrifice else. These are the
many things considerable in these words,

First of all, of the persons.

' Oh that men would praise the Lord.'

The blessed psalmist, whosoever he were, directed by the Spirit of God,

150

A BESCUE FROM DEATH,

he would have all men to praise God ; not only those that participate and
have interest in the favour, but the beholders also of the goodness of God
to others. For here he that was not interested in these favours for his
own particular, yet he praiseth God for the blessings to others; and he
wisheth that God might have praise from them.

For we are all of one society, of one family, we are all brethren ; there-
fore we must praise God for his blessings and benefits on others : and not
only for ourselves, but we must wish that all would do so; and specially
we must 'praise God' for ourselves, when we have part of the benefit.
For shall others 'praise God' for us, and shall not we for ourselves?
Shall the churches of God abroad 'praise God' for his great deliverance of
this city — as there is no church in the world that hears of it but is thankful
for it — and shall not we for ourselves ? Shall the angels in heaven ' praise
God,' and sing for the redemption of the church by the blood of Christ,
* Glory to God on high, peace on earth, good will to men ? ' Luke ii. 13, 14 ;
and shall not we, that have interest in the work of redemption ? for Christ
is not a mediator of redemption to angels. He hath relation to them in
another respect. Yet they out of love to God and the church, and a
desire to glorify God, they 'praise God' for this; and shall not we much
more for ourselves ? We must praise God ourselves, and desire that all
would do so, as he saith here, ' Oh that men would praise the Lord,' &c.;
and in some other psalms he stirs up all the creatures, ' hail, and snow,
and wind,' and all to praise God.

How can these ' praise God ' ?
, ° They do it by our mouths, by giving us occasion to praise him. And
they ' praise him ' in themselves ; for as the creature groaneth, Eom. viii. 23,
that none knows but God and itself; they groan for the corruption and
abuse that they are subject unto, and God knows those groans. So the
creature hath a kind of voice likewise in praising of God. They declare
in their nature the goodness of God, and minister occasion to us to praise
God. Therefore the psalmist being desirous that God might be praised
for his ' goodness and mercy,' he stirs up every creature, Ps. ciii. 20, seq.,
even the very angels, insinuating that it is a work fit for angels.

The children of God have such a love and zeal to the glory of God, that
they are not content only to praise God themselves, but they stir up all.
They need not to wish angels to do it, but only to shew theii- desire. Oh
the blessed disposition of those that love God in Christ !

What shall we think then of those wretched persons that grieve that the
' word of God should run and have free passage, and be glorious,' 2 Thes.
iii. 1, and that there should be a free use of the sacraments and the blessed
means of salvation ? They envy the glory of God, and the salvation of
people's souls. What shall we say to those that desire to hear God dis-
honoured, that perhaps swear and blaspheme, themselves, or if they do
not, yet they are not touched in their hearts for the dishonour of God by
others ? This is far from the disposition of a Christian. He desires that
all creatures may trumpet out the praise of God, from the highest angel to
the lowest creature, from the sun and stars to the meanest shrub ; only
devilish- spirited carnal men take delight to blaspheme God, that can strike
them with his word and send them to their own place, to hell, without
repentance, and can hear him dishonoured without any touch of spirit. A
child of God desires God to be glorified from his very heart-root, and is
grieved when God is dishonoured any kind of way. So much briefly for
the first.

WITH A RETURN OF PRAISE. 151

Now wliat is the duty this holy man wishes ?

' That men would praise God. And sacrifice the sacrifice of thanks-
giving, and declare his works.'

Out of the largeness of his heart he expresseth the same thing in many
words, therefore I shall not need to make any scruple in particulai-ising of
them, because there is not so much heed to be given in the expressions of
a large heart as to be punctual in everything.

First, He begins with praise.

* Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord,' &c.

It is a duty, as I said before, fit for angels. Fit ! Nay, it is performed
by them. For it is all the work they do. It is the only work that was
religious, that Adam did in paradise, and that we shall do in heaven with
God. Therefore we are never more in heaven than when we take all occa-
sions of blessing and ' praising God.' We are never in a more happy
estate.

It is a duty therefore we should aim at, and the rather, because it is the
fruit and end of all other duties whatsoever. What is the end of all the
good we do, but to shew our thankfulness to God? The end of our fruit-
fulness in our place ? That others may take occasion to glorify God.
What is the end of our hearing ? To get knowledge and grace, that we
may be the better able to praise God in our mouths and in our lives.
What is the end of receiving the sacrament ? Nay, what is the duty
itself ? A thanksgiving. What is the end of prayer ? To beg graces and
strength that so we may carry ourselves in our places as is fit ; that so we
may not want those things without which we cannot so well glorify God.
So the end of all is to glorify God.

It is the end that God intended in all. He framed all things to his own
praise in the creation. Why hath God given man reason here upon the
stage of the world ? To behold the creatures, Eom. i. 19, 20, that seeing
in the creature ' the wisdom of God in ordering things,' ' the goodness of
God' in the use of things, and the ' power of God' in the greatness of
things, the huge, vast heaven and earth, he might take occasion to glorify
and magnify this God, to think highly of him, to exalt him in our
thoughts ; that his creatures, heaven and earth, be so beautiful and excel-
lent, what excellency is in God himself !

And as the end of creation, so in redemption, all is for his glory and
praise. InEph. i. 6, how sweetly doth Saint Paul set forth the end of it :
' To the glory of his rich mercy and grace.' To be merciful to sinners ;
to give his own Son ; for God to become man, not for man in that estate
as Adam was in innocency, but for sinners ; for God to triumph over sin
by his infinite mercy : here is the glory of his grace shining in the gospel.
All is for the glory and praise of God there.

And for particular deliverances, in Ps. 1. 15, ' Call upon me in the day
of trouble : I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.' His deliverances
of us in the passages of our life is, that we may glorify him, by taking notice
in imminent dangers of some of his attributes, when there is no means
of deliverance, of his power and goodness, &c. In Kev. iv. 10, the elders
are brought in praising God for the work of creation ; and then in the fifth,
ver. 12, for ' redemption,' ' Thou art worthy, for thou hast redeemed us.'
So indeed the work of creation, redemption, and the particular passages of
God's providence, and protection, and preservation, they are matter of praise
in heaven and earth among God's people.

152 A EESCUE FROM DEATH,

Now to name a few helps and means to perform tliis duty the better.

If we would stir up ourselves to praise God, let tis consider our own iin-
u-orthiness. As in prayer there must be a humble heart — for a man will
not seek abroad if he have somewhat at home : poverty of spirit and
humility of heart makes a man pray — so it is the humble soul that
' praiseth God,' that sees no desert in itself. This is one way to help us
to ' praise God,' to see nothing in ourselves why God should so regard us,
as ' to give us our lives for a prey,' Jer. xxi. 9, to set his love on us, and
to follow us with good ; nay, we have deserved the contrary, that God
should leave us and expose us to misery, rather than to watch over us by
his providence. What is in us ? ' It is he that hath made us, and not
we ourselves,' Ps. c. 3 ; and he made us again when we were sinners,
when we were worse than nought. Therefore, to humble us, we must con-
sider our own unworthiness. He that knows himself unworthy of any
favour, he will be thankful even for the least, as we see in Jacob, ' I am
less than the least of all thy favours,' Gen. xxxii. 10. Therefore he was
thankful for the least. So we see here in the text. These men are
stirred up to ' praise God.' They saw no other help, no worthiness
in themselves. They were at the gates of death, in a desperate estate ;
' Oh that such men would praise God.' Indeed, such men are fittest
to ' praise God,' that can ascribe help to nothing but to God, to no second
causes.

Therefore, in the next place, as a branch of the former, if we would praise
God, divell not on the second causes. If God use second causes in any favour
he bestows on us, either in keeping us from any ill, or bestowing any good,
consider it as a means that God might dispense with ; that he might use if
he would, or not use. See God in the second causes ; rise from them to
him. Art thou healed by physic ? Use physic as a means, but see God
in it. But if God hath cured thee without physic, without ordinary means,
then see him more immediately doing good to thee without the help of
second causes. That is one way to help us to praise God, to see him in
every favour and deliverance. For what could second causes do, if he
should not give a blessing ? Especially praise him when he hath imme-
diately* done it, as he can. Did not he make light before there was a sun ?
He is not tied to give light by the sun ; and he made waters before he
made the clouds. He is not tied to the clouds. Therefore especially ' praise
God ' when we have deliverance we know not how, without means, imme-
diately from the goodness and strength of God.

Again, If we would ' praise God ' for any favour, consider the necessity and
use of the favour we 2jrayfor, as these men here ; they were at death's door,
and ' loathed all manner of meat.' Alas ! they had died if God had not
helped them. If thou wouldst bless God, consider what a miserable state
thou shouldst be in if thou hadst not that favour to praise God for. If
thou be to bless God for thy senses, put case thou shouldst want thy sight,
what a miserable case thou shouldst be in ! So for any of the senses
that a man wants, whereby he should glorify God, and take the comfort of
the creature, put case a man should want his taste, as these men here —
' their soul abhorred all manner of meat ' — alas ! what a miserable case is it
to want a relish and taste of the comfort that God hath put into the
creatures ; put case we should want the meanest benefit we enjoy, how
uncomfortable would our lives be !

This spark of reason that God hath given us, that we have understanding
■*' That if, ' without means.' — G.

WITH A EETUKN OF PEAISE.

153

to conceive things, which is the engine whereby we do all things as men,
and are capable of the grace of God, what a miserable thing were it if God
should take away our wits, or suspend the use of them ?

But especially in matters of grace, if God had not sent Christ to redeem
the world, what a cursed condition had we lain in, nest to devils ?

Again, If we would praise God, let m every day keep a diary of his favours
and blessiuf/s: what good he doth us privately, what positive blessmgs he
bestows upon us, and what dangers he frees us from, and continues and
renews his mercy every day ; and publicly what benefit we have by the state
we live in. Oh what a happy state is it that we live in peace, that weenjoy
such laws, ' that every man may sit under his own vine, and under his own
fig-tree,' Micah iv. 4, and enjoy the comforts of life, when all the_ world
about us are and have been in combustion ! We should keep a register of
God's blessings. Oh that we could learn to have such exact lives ! It
would breed a world of comfort, and we should have a less account to make
when we die.

Every day labour to be humbled for our sins, specially such as break
the peace of our consciences, and never give our bodies rest till our hearts
have rest in the favour of God ; and together with matter of humiliation,
daily observe how God bestows new favours, or else continues the old ; that
notwithstanding our provocation and forgetfulness of him, he strives with us
by his goodness. This is a blessed duty that we should labour to per-
form.

And then when we have done this, let us rouse up all that we are, and
all that we have within us, to praise God. Ps. ciii. 1, ' My soul, praise the
Lord, and all that is within me praise his holy name.' What have we
within us to praise God ? Let us praise God with our understanding, to
conceive and have a right judgment of God's favours, of the worthiness of
them and our own unworthiness, and then a sanctified memory. ' Forget
not all his benefits,' Ps. ciii. 2. Forgetfulness is the grave of Gods
blessings. It buries all. And then there is in us the afl'ection of joy and
love to God to taste him largely, and then all within us will be large in the
praising of God. And our tongue likewise, though that be not withm us,
it is called our ' glory,' Ps. xvi. 9 and Ps. Ivii. 8 ; let us make it our glory
in this, to trumpet out God's praise upon all occasions. All that is within
us, and all that we are, or have, or can do, let it be all to the glory and
' praise of God.'

To draw to a conclusion, with some general application of all that hath
been spoken, and then in particular to the present occasion.

You know how God hath dealt of late with this city,* and with ourselves
indeed ; for we are all of one body politic, and however God visited them,
yet it was our sins also that provoked him. We brought sticks to the
common fire. A physician lets the arm blood, but the whole body is dis-
tempered. God let the city blood, but the whole kmgdom was m a
distemper. So that it was for our sins as well as theirs. We all brought, L
say, something to the common flame, and God afllicted us even m them
God hath now stayed the sickness almost as miraculously as he sent it. It
was a wonder that so many should be swept away in so short a time, it
is almost as great a wonder that God should stay it so soon. And what
may we impute it unto ? Surely as it is in the text. ' They cried unto
the Lord.' God put it into the hearts of, the governors of the^tate to
appoint humiliation and ' crying to God,' and therefore since God hath
* In margin here, ' In the great visitation, 1625.'— G.

154 A RESCUE FROM DEATH,

been so merciful upon our humiliation, it is religiously and worthily done
of the State, that there should be a time to ' bless God.'

Again, God did it with a word, with a command. It was both in the
inflicting and delivery, as it were, without means ; for what could the
physician do in staying the plague ? Alas, all the skill in the world is at
a loss in these kinds of sicknesses ! It comes with God's command. It is
God's arrow more especially than other sicknesses. God sent it by his
command, first to humble us for our sin ; and now he hath stayed it with a
word of command, that from above five thousand a week it is come to three
persons. ' God hath sent his word and healed us.'

It was a pitiful state we were in before ; for indeed it was not only a
sickness upon the city, but a civil sickness. The whole state was dis-
tempered ; for as there is sickness in the body when there is obstruction,
when there is not a passage for the spirits and the blood from the liver,
and from the heart, and from the head, these obstructions cause weakness,
and faintings, and consumption. So was there not an obstruction in the
State of late ? Were not the veins of the kingdom stopped ? Was not
civil commerce stayed ? The affliction of this great city, it was as the
affliction of the head, or of the heart, or of the liver. If the main vital
part be sick, the whole is sick; so the whole kingdom, not only by way of
sympathy, but it was civilty sick, in regard that all trading and intercourse
was stopped ; it was a heavy visitation. And we have much cause to bless
God that now the ' ways of this Sion ' of ours ' mourn not ; ' that there is
free commerce and intercourse as before ; that we can meet thus peaceably
and quietly at God's ordinances, and about our ordinary callings. Those
that have an apprehension of the thing, cannot choose but break out in
thanksgiving to God in divers respects.

1. First of all, have not we matter to praise God that he would correct
us at all ? He might have sufiered us to have gone on and been ' damned
with the wicked world;' as it is 1 Cor. xi. 32, 'We are therefore chastened
of the Lord, that we should not be damned with the world.' It is his
mercy that he would take us into his hands as children, that he would
visit us at all.

2. Another ground of thanksgiving is this, that since he would correct
us, he li'oidd use this kind of correction, that he would take us into his own
hands. Might he not have suffered a furious, bloody, dark- spirited, devilish-
spirited enemy to have invaded us ? to have fallen into the hard hands of
men acted with devilish malice ? David thought this a favour, even that
God would single him out to punish him with the plague of pestilence, that
he might not 'fall before his enemies,' 2 Sam. xxiv. 14. The mercies of
God are wondrous great when we ' fall into his hands.' He is a ' merciful
God.' He hath tender bowels full of pity and compassion. But the very
mercies of wicked idolaters ' are cruel.' There was a mercy, therefore, in
that, that God would take us into his own hands.

8. In the third place. We see when he had taken us into his own hands,
how he hath stopped the rarjing of the pestilence, and hath inhibited the
destroying angel even in a wondrous manner ; that the plague, when it was
BO raging, that it should come to decrease upon a sudden. God was won-
drous in this work. Is not here matter of praise ?

4. Then again. It is a mercy to us all here that he should ' give us our
lives for a prey ; ' as God saith in Jeremiah to Baruch, ' Wheresoever thou
goest, thou shalt have thy life for a prey,' Jer. xxi. 9. Might not God's
arrow have followed us wheresoever we went ?

WITH A KETUBN OF PRAISE. 155

WTiither can a man go from this arrow, but that God being everywhere,
might smite him with the pestilence ? Now, in that he hath watched over
us, and kept us from this noisome contagious sickness, and hath brought
us altogether here quietly and freely, that so there may be intercourse
between man and man in trading and other calling, this is the fourth ground
of ' praising of God.'

5. And that it did not rage in other parts. In former time God scattered
the pestilence more over the kingdom. It is a great matter to bless God
for. I beseech you, let us say with the same spirit as this holy man
here, * Oh that men, therefore, would praise the Lord for his goodness,
and for the wonders that he doth for the children of men ! ' — for his
goodness, that he would rather correct us here than damn us ; for his
goodness, that he would not give us up to our enemies ; for his goodness,
that he stayed the infection so suddenly, and that he stayed the spreading
of it further ; for his goodness unto us in particular, that he hath kept us
all safe.

What shall we do now but consecrate and dedicate these lives of ours ; for
he gives us our lives more than once, at the beginning. There is never a
one here but can say by experience, God hath given me my life at such a
time and such a time. Let us give these lives again to God, labour to
reform our former courses, and enter into a new covenant with God. This
is one part of thanksgiving, to renew our covenant with God, to please him
better ; and indeed, in every thanksgiving that should be one ingredient.
Now, Lord, I intend and resolve to please thee better. Whatsoever my
faults have formerly been, I resolve by thy grace and assistance to break
them off. Without this, all the other is but a dead performance.

Now, briefly, by way of analogy and proportion, to raise some medita-
tions from that that hath been delivered concerning the body, to the soul ;
for God is the physician both to soul and body.

If God with his word can heal our bodies, as the psalmist saith here,
much more can he with his word heal our soul. There are many that their
bodies are well, thanks be to God, but how is it with their souls ? Here
you have some symptoms to know their spiritual state ; and oh that people
were apprehensive of it ! Have you not many that their ' soul loatheth all
manner of meat,' and they ' draw near the gates of death ? ' Their souls
are in a desperate state. They are deeply sick. How shall we know it ?
Their soul ' abhorreth all manner of wholesome meat.' How many are
there that relish poets and history, any trifle that doth but feed their vain
fancy, and yet cannot reHsh the blessed truth and ordinances of God?
Where is spiritual life when this spiritual sense is gone, when men cannot
relish holy things ? If they relish the ordinance of God, it is not the
spiritual part of it, so far as the Spirit toucheth the conscience, but some-
thing that, it may be, is suitable to their conceit, expressions, or phrases,
or the like. But it is a symptom and sign of a fearful declining state when
men do not relish the spiritual ordinances of God, which should be, as it
were, ' their appointed food ; ' when they do not ' delight to acquaint them-
selves with God,' in hearing of the word, and reading, and the like. Let
such, therefore, as delight not in spiritual things, know that their souls lie
gasping ; they are at the ' gates ' of spiritual death. All is not well. There
is some fearful obstruction upon the soul that takes away the appetite.
The soul runs into the world over much. They cloy themselves with the
world. When men cannot relish heavenly things, they are ate up with
the delight and joy of other things, pleasures, and profits.

156

A RESCUE FROM DEATH,

Let them search the cause, and labour for purging, sharp, things that may
procure an appetite.

, Let them judge themselves, and see what is the matter, that they do not
delight more in heavenly things ; let them purge themselves by confession
to God, and consideration of their sins, and labour to recover their appe-
tite. For it is almost a desperate estate, ' they are at the gates of death.'

Especially now when we come to the communion. What do we here, if
we cannot relish the food of our souls ? Let us examine if we desire to
taste the love of God, and to be acquainted with God here. If not, what
shall we do in these spiritual distempers ?

Desire of God, cry to God, that he would forgive our sins and heal our
souls by his Holy Spirit, that he would make us more spiritual, to relish
heavenly things better than we have done before, that as the things that
are heavenly are better in their kind than other things are, so they may
be better to our taste.

_ A man may know the judgment of his state when he answereth not the
difference of things. What the difference is between the food of life and
ordinary food ; what the difference is between the comforts of the Holy
Ghost and other comforts ; between the riches and pelf of the world and
the riches of the Spirit ; the graces of God, that will cause a man to live
and die with comfort ; the true riches, that make the soul rich to eternity :
there is no comparison. Beg of God this spiritual relish to discern ' of
things that differ,' Heb. v. 14, that we may recover our appetite. God by
his Avord and Spirit can do it, not only the word written, but the inward
spiritual word written in our hearts. Desire God to join his Spirit with his
word and sacraments, and that will recover our taste and make us spiritual,
that we shall relish him that is both the feast-maker and the feast itself.
He is both the meat and the provider of the banquet.

For whence is it that all other things are sweet to us ? deliverance
from trouble and sickness ? Because it is a pledge of our spiritual deli-
verance in Christ. The deliverance from hell and damnation, what comfort
can a man have that knows not his state in grace, in the enjoying of his
health, when he shall think he is but as a ' sheep kept for the slaughter ? '
He knows not whether he be in the favour of God or no.

Therefore let us come and renew our faith in the forgiveness of our sins
through the blood of Christ, of whom we are made partakers in the sacra-
ment. For if we believe our deliverance from hell and damnation by the
body of Christ broken and his blood shed, then everything will be sweet.
When we know God loves us to life everlasting, then everything in the way
to life everlasting, even daily bread, will be sweet, because the same love
that gives heaven gives daily food, and the same love that redeems us
from helljredeems us from sickness. Therefore let us labour to strengthen
our faith in the main, that we may be thankful for the less. And as we
enter into new covenant Avith God, so labour to keep it ; in Lev. xxvi. 14,
seq., everything avengeth the breaking of God's covenant. When Ave make
covenant to serve him better for the time to come, and yet break it, God
is forced to send his messenger. He sends sickness to avenge his coA^enant.
Considering that he hath lately so avenged it, let it make us so much the
more circumspect in our carriage. So much for this time and text.

Imprimahir.
Thomas Wykes.
3foy 11
1038.

WITH A RETURN OF PRAISE. 157

NOTES.

(a) P. 140. — ' In such a year, snch conjunctions and sucli eclipses,' &c. One of
various allusions to astrology, a faith in -which Sibbes shared with the most illus-
trious of his contemporaries, e.g.. Bacon, Sir Thomas Browne, &c.

(b) P. 141. — ' As Salvian saith well, " Tnou perishest before thou perish." ' Of.
note d, Vol. V. page 34.

(c) P. 143. — ' As one observes, that naturally men run to God in extremity.'
Many curious and striking illustrations of this will be found in the old Puritan
' Commentaries' on the Book of Jonah, chap. i. verses 5, 6, and parallel passages.
It is an observation common to Cicero, and all writers on ' Natural Eeligion.'

(d) P. 144. — ' It was the speech of a heathen,' &c. A variation of the proverb,
' Man's extremity is God's opportunity.'

(e) P. 149. — '"With rejoicing and singing," as the word signifies.' Cf. Dr
Joseph Addison Alexander m loc, who, with Sibbes, supplies 'joyful' before
'singing.' G.

THE SAINT'S COMFORTS.

NOTE.

'The Saint's Comforts ' forms a moiety of a small volume (18mo) published in
1638. The general title-page of the Yolume is given below.* It will be observed
that Sibbes's name does not appear thereon, but on the other sermons it does. Pro-
bably the name was withheld from the ' Comforts, ' as being from 'Notes ' without
Sibbes's sanction. Next to ' The Spiritual Favourite, ' this volume is the rarest of
his books. I have been able to trace only another copy besides my own, viz., that
in the Bodleian. I have to acknowledge the kindness of the Rev. Henry Creswell
of Canterbury in procuring ' Tlie Saint's Comforts ' for me. The other sermons will
be foimd in their place in Vol. VII, G.

* THE

SAINTS
COMFORTS.
Being the substance of di-
verse Sermons Preached
on, Psal. 130. the beginning.
The Saints Uappinesse, on Psal.

73. 28.
The Rich Pearle ; on 3Iath. 13.

45, 4G.
The Successe of the Gospell, on,

Luk. 7. 34, 35.
Maries Choice, on Luk. 10. 38,
39, 40.

By a Reverend Divine now
with God.

Printed at London by Tho. Cotes, and
are to be sold by Peter Cole, at the signe of the
Glove in Corne-hil ueere the Exchange. 1638.

On reverse —

Imprimatur,
Tho. Wykes. Octob. 5. 1G37.

THE SAINT'S COMFORTS:

AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX.

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, God. — Ver. 1.

This psalm is a pithy psalm, and therefore is called a psalm of degrees.
Other reasons the Jews give of this title, but they agree not. Some will
have it that these psalms were sung upon the fifteen stairs that went up to
the temple. Some call them thus, for that they say they were sung with
an extraordinary high voice. But in these difficulties, Melius est duhitare
de occultis, quam litif/nre de incertis. All historical truths are not necessary
to be known, for Christ did many things that were not written, John xx. 30.

The author is not named. However, we may assure ourselves the Spirit
of God indited it, setting down, first, the state of the writer, ver. 1 ;
secondly, his carriage in that estate : ' He prayed, being in depths,' ver. 2 ;
thirdly, the ground of his prayer, which was God's mercy, ver. 3 ; his
own faith, hope, and patience ; his waiting, is simply laid down, ver. 5,
and comparatively, ver. 6 ; and fourthly, an application to the whole church,
ver. 7, from his own experience of God's mercy and sufiiciency.

Out of the first part, concerning the state of the writer of this psalm, let
us observe these particulars, following in their order: first, that the children
of God do fall into depths ; that is, into extremity of misery and afiliction,
which are called ' depths ;' because as waters and depths, so these, do swallow
up and drown the soul, and because they do compass about the soul, bury-
ing it in great, terrible, continuing deep dangers ; and these depths of a
Christian are either outward or inward. The outward troubles and depths
are those of the body. These God's children are afflicted with, as Jonah
was when he was in the bottom of the sea, Joseph in prison, and Paul in
the dungeon ; and these are like the man of God to the Shunamite, 1 Kings
xvii. 18, they do but call our sins to remembrance. But the inward spiritual
troubles are the great depths ; that is, trouble of mind for sin that lies upon
us, causing us to doubt of our estate, to feel God's wrath, to fear rejection
and excluding from God's presence. This is the soul of sorrow ; other
outward sorrows being but the carcase of sorrow. * The spirit of a man will
bear his infirmities ; but a wounded spirit who can bear ?' Prov. xviii. 14.
In such an estate, in regard of the extremity of the burden of the sins of
the whole world laid on him, was our head, Christ Jesus, making him sweat

VOL. VI. L

162 THE saint's comforts:

* drops of blood,' Luke xxii. 44 ; and when he was on the cross, when he
cried with strong cries and tears, ' My God, my God, why hast thou for-
saken me ?' Mark xv. 34. But ivliy is this thus, that the Prince* of our
salvation should be in such a depth of misery ? I answer, because it was
requisite that salvation should be repaired by the contrary means to that
whereby it was lost. It was lost by lifting up. Adam would be like a
god ; and Christ he regained us by abasing himself. The Son of God must
become man, and a man of sorrows ; and as the head was, so the members
have been and must be, Eom. viii. 29, ' for we are predestinated to be like
the image of his Son,' and so to pledge him in the same cup wherein he
drank deep to us. In this plight we find David often, though a man after
God's own heart, Ps. vi. 2, 3, Ps. Ixxxviii. 2, &c., Ps. xl. 12 ; and Jonah,
a prophet, Jonah ii. 2, &c. ; and Hezekiah, Isa. xxxviii. 13 ; and Job
especially. Job vi. 4. But why is this thus, seeing our head, Christ Jesus,
hath suffered for us ? I answer, we must suffer.

Reason 1. First, That we may know what Christ suffered for us Inj our oim
experience, without which we should but lightly esteem of our redemption,
not knowing how to value Christ's sufferings sufficiently, which is a horrible
sin, Heb. ii. 3.

Reason 2. Secondly, By our sufferings we know what a hitter thinrj sin is,
Jer. ii. 19, as by the ill consequents thereof : for without the taste of God's
WTath, we find nothing but sweetness and pleasure in sin ; and therefore,
we have so much sense of God's wrath as to humble us, but shews not the
extremity of the depth of sin, lest we should sink down into despair.

Reason 3. Thirdly, By our afflictions and depths, ice manifest God's j)oiver
and glory the more in our deliverance : for the greater the trouble is, the
greater is the deliverance ; as the greater the cure is, the greater credit the
physician gets.

Reason 4. Fourthly, Many times, by less evils, it is God's manner to cure
greater ; and thus he suffers us to feel wrath, to cure us of security, which
is as a grave to the soul ; as also to cure spiritual pride, that robs us of
grace, dealing with us as he did with the Israelites. He would not cast
out all the nations from before them, but left some that might be employed
in hunting and destroying the wild beasts, which might else multiply against
the children of Israel. And thus God dealt with Paul, gave him to be vexed
by a base temptation, lest he should be lifted up with spiritual pride,
through the abundance of revelations, 2 Cor. xii. 7.

Reason 5. Fifthly, These depths are left to its, to make us more desirous of
heaven ; else great men, that are compassed about with earthly comforts,
alas, with what zeal could they pray, ' Thy kingdom come,' &c. ? No ;
with Peter they would rather say, * Master, it is good for us to be here,'
Mark ix. 5 ; and therefore, it is God's usual deahng with great men, to
suffer them to fall into spiritual desertions, to smoke them out of the world,
whether they will or not.

Reason 6. Sixthly, God works by these afflictions in ?« a more gentleness of
spirit, making us meek and pitiful tou-ards those that are in depths, which, was
one cause of Christ's afflictions : he suffered, that he might help and com-
fort others. He suffered Peter to stumble, that when he was converted, he
should ' strengthen his brethren,' Luke xxii. 32.

Use 1. Hence therefore we learn 7iot to p)ass a rash censure on ourselves or
others that are in such depths as this holy man was in ; for the afflicted soul
no sooner tastes of this bitter fruit, but presently breaks out into complaints.
* Misprinted ' point.' — G-.

AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. 163

* Never was any tlius afflicted as I,' thinking it unpossible that there should
be greater crosses, than it feels ; when indeed the draught that Christ our
head did drink to us, was far beyond the apprehension of mortal man, and
therefore much more beyond his power to undergo. Let us beware how
we censure others that are afflicted, for God's ends are hid. It may_ be
God sends afflictions to manifest some excellent graces which lie in him,
unknown both to the world and himself; and so he set Job as a flag of
defiance against the devil, bidding him do his worst. He should find him
upright, and a just man ; and therefore we should rather take notice of
affliction as a sign of some excellent grace with which God hath furnished
such ; for God will not call out any of his to sufi'ering, but he will get him-
self honour thereby.

Use 2. In the second place, note this doctrine against the profane persons
that timh at relif/ion, and make a mock at the dejected condition of those
that are good, because they seem despised, afflicted, and forsaken. They,
alas ! are ignorant of God's ways and works. It were much safer for them
to consider their own ways, and to reason, if God deals thus with his dearest
ones, with the ' green trees,' what shall become of those that are his
enemies, that are ' dry trees ? ' If such troubles arise to the godly, even
from God's love to them, what shall defend the wicked when the vials of
God's wrath shall be poured down upon them, when they shall « call to the
rocks and mountains to hide, cover, and defend them ?' Rev. vi. 16. If
the ' righteous hardly be saved, where shall the ungodly appear ? ' 1 Peter
iv. 18. And to conclude, know that the afflictions of the children of God
are far better than the pleasures of sin.

Doct. 2. In the second place, observe we, though Christians fall into
depths, yet God upholds them that they sink not down into them ivithout
recovery. Thus it was with our Head. Though he on the sudden appre-
hended not the presence of God, so as he thought himself forsaken, yet
he could even at the worst say, ' My God.' Thus also Jonah, ii. 4, ' I said
I was cast out of thy sight ; yet will I look towards thy holy temple.' So
Ps. xxxi. 22, and Ps. cxviii. 5 and 6 verses.

rieason 1. For the Spirit of God is in them, and where it is, it is stronger
than hell, yea though the grace be but as a grain of mustard seed.

Eeason 2. Again, As there are depths of misery in a Christian, so m
God there are depths of love and of wisdom.

Beaton 3. Thirdly, F<*i(/j., where it is, unites the said to Christ, and to God
through him, and draws down divine power— to lay hold on the almighty
power of God by true and fervent prayer,— at whose rebuke the waters of
affliction flee away, Ps. Ixxvii. 36; and so the stronger the faith is, the
stronger is the delivery, for it is of a mighty power, enabling us to wrestle
with God, as Jacob did. Thus when we lay hold on God, and God on us,
what can drown us ?

B^ason 4. Fourthly, It is the nature of God's ivorking to be by contraries:
in his works of creation, making all things of nothing ; in his works of
providence, he saves by little means from greatest dangers. That he might
bring us to heaven, he suffers us to go down even into hell, to see our
worst estate, to humble us ; and it may therefore be a cause why many
men lie long in afflictions, even because they come not low enough to_ see
their sins and need of help. In glorifying our mortal bodies, he first brings
them to the grave, that they may rot and corrupt, and so be refined and
moulded anew.

Use 1. This should teach us a note of difference between those that are

164 THE saint's comforts:

God's children and those that are not. Those that are his, when they are
in danger, go to him. They have ever that hold by faith, as to say, ' Yet
God is good to Israel,' Jer. sxxi. 1. Others seek to escape by desperate
undoing of themselves, as Saul, and Judas, and Ahithophel, for all his
strong natural parts ; and indeed such are in most danger of such courses
of all other ; for God will tread on such for their pride. Contrarily he
mingles comforts, in the worst estate that his children are in, with griefs,
one to humble them, the other to support them from despair ; and so he
sets them on a rock that is higher than they.

Use 2. Secondly, It should teach iis in all extremities how to carry ourselves.
We should take heed of the stream of grief, striving against it, as we
desire a note of our good estate ; take heed how we think that God forsakes
us. It is an imputation unbefitting him that never forsakes his. Take
heed of judging ourselves by sense. Is meat sour because one that is sick
doth not relish it ? No. The fault is in his indisposition. So in such
desertions, be sure thou retainest thy anchor of hope, though contrary to
hope ; and therefore in the next place.

Use 3. We should answer God's deallncj hy our dealiny. He works by
contraries ; we should judge by contraries. Therefore, if we be in misery,
hope and wait for glory, in death look for life, in sense of sin assure thy-
self of pardon, for God's nature and promises are unchangeable ; and when
God will forgive, he lets us see our troubles ; and therefore with resolute
Job say, ' Though he kills me, I will yet trust in him,' Job xiii. 15. But
to come particularly, I will set down cures of such depths as may arise from
several causes ; and these depths are either imaginary or real. Christians
sometimes think themselves to be in depths when indeed they are not, but
it is only imaginary, raised it may be from a melancholy distemperature of
the spirits, which also distempers the reasonable working of the mind ;
raising as false and feigned conceits of their souls as it doth in many of
their bodies ; and yet these conceits have real effects, as in Jacob, who
sorrowed as truly for Joseph as if he were dead indeed. Therefore for the
avoiding hereof be not alone ; a friend and good company are made for such
times. For the devil sets on men in such case most when they are alone,
and the strongest are then too vreak for him ; and believe not thine own
fancy, but rather believe those that can discern us better than we ourselves
can. We know how men have been deceived thus, and therefore when we
are advised thus by friends, and counselled, let us suspect that it is a motion
of the devil or a fancy of thine own that thus troubles thee.

There is another depth that is imaginary, arising /ro?« mistahing of rules,
concluding because they have not so much grace as others, have not so much
subduing and prevailing power over sin, therefore they have no grace at all,
they are damned hypocrites and the like. Little do they think that perfec-
tion is not attainable here, but is reserved to the blessedness of that other
life heieafter. Little do they look to the imperfections of the best saints of
God, and the great depths that they have been in ; and indeed they know
not what the covenant of grace requires, nor perfect fulfilling of the law by
our own persons, for that was the end of the law. But the covenant of
grace requires sincerity with growth ; and this is the only perfection which
we can look for here.

Another depth also there is, which ariseth from the taking of the motions
of the devil for those of his oicn corrupt nature. The baseness and unrea-
sonableness of them makes them think they cannot be God's children, and
have such detestable motions within them. Let such know that such shall

AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX.

165

be cast 7ipon Satan s score. And it is a sign rather that such are none of
the children of the devil, who, if they were, would suffer them to rest in
quiet without vexing them.

Again, some men fall into another depth, which ariseth from an apjn-e-
hension of God forsakiufj them. To such I give this advice, that they jiuhie
not of themselves by their distemper, for a sinful conscience puts a veil some-
times between God and us, hiding his favour ; which nevertheless may be
as great to us then as at any other time, and it may be intended by God
to drive us to him by scourging us from our wicked ways and sins, which
formerly we lived in. By faith therefore pull off the vizor from the face of
God ; judge not according to present appearance, but by God's nature and
his promises, who hath said he will be with us for ever, that no temptations
shall be above measure, 1 Cor. x. 13 ; judge by his nature who is unchange-
able ; and thus did the Canaanitish woman see Christ's loving nature under
his frowning look, who doth as Joseph, hide his love and person from
his brethren out of a increasement of love, not out of any ill intent. Again,
in such a case let us be sure ive trust others that are our friends rather than
ourselves. I mean in time of temptation, whenas others can better discern
of our health by our spiritual pulses than we ourselves, who then are
blinded ; and in such cases there is the trial of faith and love.

There is another sort of depths, and these are before conversion ; and thus
was Paul troubled, ' Lord, what shall I do ? ' and thus was Manasseh. Let
such consider the commandment, to humble them and cast themselves on
Christ and his promises, considering the end of Christ's coming was to save
and seek such as are lost.

Use 4. And if any one shall find himself already escaped such depths as
are formerly mentioned, let him take comfort to himself, as being thereby
evidently proved to be the child of God ; for that is utterly impossible, that
nature should overcome such difficulties, and to that end let him reason
after this sort, God's children go to him in depths. I go only to him m
depths, therefore I am God's child ; for to have the spirit of prayer to go
to God in time of trouble, it is a work of the Spirit ; a natural man hath
it not, Job xxvii. 9, 10.

Use 5. Hence therefore, in the next place, note a sure sign of the true
religion, namehj, to he able to support men in danger and in spiritual troubles.
This is verified in ours, as the subtile Jesuit will acknowledge, while they
hold that reposing ourselves merely on mercy and favour in Christ, and not
on man's good works, is the safest way. Why, therefore, they live by their
uncomfortable rules ; and when they die, fly for succour to these, which m
their Hfetime they despise.*

Use 6. Moreover, let this be a ground to encourage us never to give over
God's cause. He hath said he will not leave us though we be in depth of
our sins, if we belong to him, and therefore much less will he leave us m
that work which he himself sets us about. He was with Daniel among the
lions, with Moses m the bulrushes, with the ' three children' m the fire,
with his church through ' fire and water.'

Use 7. Lastly, Let us therefore be sure to keep God our friend, that he
may own us ; else when we cry he will not hear us, Prov. i. 28. Acquaint
we ourselves with him, as it is in Job xxii. 21, in prosperity, and he will
be our refuge, &c. ,

I)oct. 3. In the third place, observe we that afflictions stir up devotions :
for prayers in time of afflictions are cries. Oratio sine mails est avis sine alis ;
* Cf. note w, Vol. III. page 531.— G.

166

THE SAINT S COMFORTS ;

for what allays worldly joy, and embitters it, but affliction ? Now we know
that it is the worldly afflictions* that quenches our zeal and makes us cold.
Affliction is a purgation opening the soul, causing it to rehsh and to affectf
spiritually, and to see the wants and necessity of supply, and so procures
longing and earnest hungering, Hosea v. 15. ' In their affliction they will
seek me early,' and therefore, Ps. cvii, 6, it is said they cried to the Lord in
their trouble. Now crying supposes want and sense of misery and ardency.
Thus were Christ's cries called ' strong cries ;' and indeed weak afflictions
many times makes men rather pettish and froward, as Jonah, than ardent in
feeling rehef ; and therefore,

Use 1. Let iis interjnet GocVs decdbigs vith a sanctified judgment. He ig
a wise physician, and knows when strong or gentle physic is most requisite.
Sometimes God by great afflictions doth manifest great graces, but so as
notwithstanding they may be mingled with a deal of corruption ; and it
is God's use that hereby his graces may be increased, and the corrup-
tion allayed, to bring down the greatest cedars, and to eclipse the greatest
lights.

Use 2. Secondly, Let ?« oppose desperations hy all means, hy prayer, by
a-ying ; and if we cannot speak, by sighing ; if not so, yet by gesture,
especially at the time of death, for God knows the heart. For then it
stands upon eternal comfort. And therefore let us do anything to shew
our faith fails not. We must know that every one shall meet with these
enemies, that would cause us to despair if they could, for this life is a warring
and striving life. We shall have enemies without and within us that will
fight against us.

Doct 4. In the next place, observe by the exam2')le of this holy man, that
prayers are to be made only to God, who knows our wants, supports us and
binds us up ; and it is only Christ that doth this. None can love us more
than he that gave himself for us. He is our eye whereby we see, our
mouth whereby we speak, our arms whereby we lay hold on God ; and
therefore it is an intolerable unthankfulness to leave this ' fountain opened
for sin and for uncleanness, and to dig to ourselves cisterns that will hold
no water,' Jer. ii, 13; to leave Christ, and run to saints and angels, and the
like, &c.

Ver. 2. * Lord, hear my voice; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of
my suppHcations.'

Mark here his constancy and instancy in prayer by his ingemination ; %
and this he doth not to work upon God, as if he were hard to be entreated
to mercy, but to waken up his own heart, and to entreat of God a more
inward and clear communion, communicating increase of grace ; so as God's
children are not satisfied wich small portions of grace. And this did
Daniel, Dan. ix. 18, 19. Lord, hear, forgive, hearken, do, defer not!
His ardency shews into what an exigent he was brought ; and indeed the
Lord regards lukewarm prayers no more than lukewarm persons, so as
he will spue them out. Prayers must be like incense. It must be fired
with zeal.

Quest. But some will ask, How shall we come to make our prayers fervent ?

Ans. I answer, consider of our wants, and our necessity of siqypJy, of our
misery in our want,- of our hope to prevail by prayer ; and these will edge
our affections in prayer. Consider also how these times, and the estate of

* Qu. ' affections ' ?— Ed. % That is, ' repetition.'— G.

t That is, ' choose.' — G.

AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. 167

the church do sympathy with thy particular depths. The church abroad
is in great depths ; and if we will have proof that we are fellow-members,
that we_ are children of that mother, let us labour for a fellow-feeling of
their miseries, and make them our own ; and to that end in our prayers
allege the depths and pray, ' Help thou. Lord, for vain is man's help,' Ps.
lx._ 11. For extremity itself is a good argument to a father to help his
children. Allege also the insolency of the enemies. ' Why should the
heathen say. Where is our God ?' Ps. Ixxix. 10. There is no church but
useth more helps of humihation than we do, which foretells a great judg-
ment; for God cannot endure this lukewarmness. Therefore call upon
God with fervency, else will he cast us into such extremities as shall force
fire into us. He that is poor doth naturally speak supplications.

Direct. 2. Secondly, Look that we always be in such an estate as God may
hear us. ^ If we be not within the covenant with God, our prayers shall
turn to sin.

Direct. 3. Thirdly, Take heed of wilful neglect of God's imrd. He that
turneth his ears from hearing the law, his prayer shall be abominable,
Prov. xxviii. 9. Some cry down preaching and cry up prayer, making opposi-
tion between duties where none is. Dost thou think God will hear thee,
and thou wilt not hear him ? Prov. i. 28.

Direct. 4. Fourthly, Take heed of double dealing ivith God. This is
hateful to God, and therefore David, till he dealt plainly with himself by
condemning himself, his prayers were but roaring as a beast taken in a
snare and [that] cannot get out, roars for pain and despite, Ps. xxxii. 3.

Direct. 5. Take heed, in the next place, of allowance of any sin, though
never so little ; and though it be only entertained in heart, "the Lord will not
hear our prayers, Ps. Ixvi. 18. For shall we think that God cares for our
prayers when we make covenant with his enemies ?

Direct. 6. Take heed also of unmercifulness and cruelty. God would not
hear the Israelites. Their hands were full of blood, Isa. i. 15. God will
rather have no sacrifice than no charity. Let us take heed of these things,
and let us come boldly to the throne of grace while he holds out his sceptre
to us.

But against this a man may object and say, that he is a wicked wretch,
and his prayers shall but increase sin.

To such I answer, let them offer their prayers in obedience to God's
commandments, who commands them to pray, and he will respect the very
' groans' of his Spirit within. Elias was a man subject to'the like infirmi-
ties ; yet God heard his prayer, James v. 17. Where God's Spirit stirreth
up, man's spirit is stirred up ; and where Christ joins to ofier the prayers to
his Father as in his own name, why should we vilify that which God highly
esteemeth ? Let God have his sacrifice. He knows how to accept of that
which is good, and to pardon that which is amiss. He will second his
beginnings, and will enlarge the heart more and more. Though in the
beginning, prayer may be dull and untoward, it shall end in fulness, and
therefore let these spiritual depths be so far off from hindering us from
prayer, as that rather it should encourage us to pray. For it may be one
end why the Lord suffers us to fall into depths, to the end that we may
be stirred up to come to him ; that thus we may glorify him, and he glorify
his mercy in hearing our prayers and granting our requests. For sure it
is, he that hath not a heart to pray when he is in depths, shall never come
out of them ; and let such as do come to him know, that however God is
not present to sense, bat rather seemeth to hide himself, yet he is most

168 THE saint's comforts:

near to such as, with Mary, cannot see him for their tears and griefs, if with
her in humihty they seek after him.

Ver. 3. * If thou, Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who shall
stand ? '

These words are a removal of hindrances of prayer, following God with
an humble confession of that which is evil, which is ever Letter than a
proud boasting of that which is good; and thus preventing* a secret
objection, which God and a guilty conscience may make, that he was a
guilty wretch. To which? he answers by way of confession, ' Truth, Lord !
yet if thou shouldst mark iniquities, none could abide it. Whence in general
we may observe,

Doct. 1. That sin hinders and discourages the soul from prayer ; for the
conscience will object, and the soul will upbraid us, telling us we are sin-
ners. God, he is holy, and how can we think he will hear us then, where
there is no faith ? The soul must needs sink. This estate was David's,
Ps. li. 14, 15, Sin and a guilty conscience had almost sealed up his lips ;
and thus was the publican, who durst not lift up his eyes to heaven ; and
thus will our estate be, especially if we yield to sins against conscience ;
like Adam, we shall run from the presence of God to hide ourselves, though
our former estate and conversation with God were never so inward and
familiar. Therefore let us look to our souls as we desire to appear with
comfort before the throne of grace, for consciousness of the remainder
of sin hinders boldness in prayer in the best.

Doct. 2. In the second place, the way to get out of misery is first to get
discharged from sin ; for sin is the beginning and cause of all misery. There-
fore the sons of Jacob, when they were handled roughly by Joseph, pre-
sently the thought of selling Joseph into Egypt came into their minds, as
the cause of all their trouble, though the fact was many years before ; and
the widow, when her son died, presently called to mind her sin : ' thou
man of God, why comest thou to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay
my son?' 1 Kings xvii. 18. If therefore we will remove the misery, let us
remove sin first. Thus David began with desiring pardon, Ps. cxliii. 2,
then prayer for deliverance, for misery follows sin, even as the shadow doth
follow the body.

I)oct. 3. Thirdly, We may observe from the general, that the way to purge
and take away sin is by confession ; thereby clearing God and laying load
on ourselves. The way to cover our sin is to uncover it b}'^ confession.
The way for God to spare us is, not to spare ourselves. And this God
requires, not for himself, as if he were not able to be merciful but by this
means, but to the end that ' we may glorify him,' as Joshua said to
Achan, ' My son, give glory to God,' Josh. vii. 19. Secondly, God will
have it a way to mercy, because he hath so decreed it ; and in the third place,
that thereby tlcere may he ivrought in our souls a greater shame for sin. And
this confession must be serious, thorough, humble, with grief, shame, and
hatred. Every * Lord, have mercy,' is not enough, for many deceive them-
selves this wayj misapplying the promises, that Christ will not ' break the
bruised reed,' that he looks at the desire. Alas ! these belong to such as
are not lazy, that are plain dealers with themselves, that will not spare
themselves ; that by reading, hearing, meditation, conference, and all other
duties, will not give over till they have found out the bottom of their ini-
quity hidden in their heart. And let only such apply them, and not those
to whom they do not belong. Thus much in general. Now, to come to
* That is, ' anticipating.' — G.

AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. 169

some particulars ; and first, let us observe out of this interrogation, having
the force of a strong affirmation,

Doct. 4. Tliat the best men in the estate of grace are sinners ; some may
be sine crimine, but not sine peccato ; for in every man there are t\YO prin-
ciples : one of good, another of evil, the old man and the new. In all
there is a ' combat between flesh and spirit.' Christ is not a mediator for
such as are already perfect ; for mediation needs not be, where all is friendly.
And therefore there must be some enmity that must make God's children
stand in need of the perpetual intercession of Christ, who is a high priest
for ever. And the servants of God have acknowledged thus much, Ps.
cxliii. 1, ' Answer me in thy righteousness,' not mine. I will not have a
quarrel with thee ; thou art righteous, I am sinful. I may be just in mine
own eyes, but in thy sight no man shall be justified. We acknowledge thus
much in our daily prayers, while we still pray ' Forgive us our trespasses.'
Though we profit every day never so much, yet, like leaking ships, we
gather that which will drown our souls at length if we repent not ; for as it
is Isa. Ixiv. 6, ' Our best performances are as filthy rags.' Isa. vi. 5, ' I
am a man of polluted lips.' Dan. ix. 20, ' While I confessed my oion sins.'
The papists themselves imply so' much, for else why teach they the doctrine
of doubting ? If we be perfect, it is a sin to doubt of salvation, for thereby
we deny God to be just. If they be perfect, what need they force the doc-
trine of penance, or of going to saints to be their mediator ? And when
they are upon the rack of conscience, the best of them will renounce then
their dreams of perfection. From this observation, therefore, we learn,
that no man can perfectly fulfil the law ; and secondly, that there can he
no justification hy ivorks. Only, that that must make us just must be perfect.
Our best works are imperfect.

Doct. 5. In the next place, we may observe that community of offenders
is no ground of lessening or diminishing of sin. A formal Christian, it is his
trick to wrap himself up in general confessions. We are all sinners ; and
if God should deal with us as we deserve, we were damned ; but come to
reckon with him for his particular sins, then he is all in a chafe. He can-
not be a saint, and the like speeches, tending to the defence of his course.
The psalmist is not of this nature. He argues otherwise : neither Adam
nor Abraham could stand, how much less shall I, poor worm ! David, he
aggravates his sin while he tells us that he was conceived and born in sin.
But men now-a-days, contrarily, ' You must bear with me ; it is my natural
disposition; I cannot do otherwise.' Yet do I not deny but to the dejected
sinner this may be used as a comfort ; for while they see the mass of cor-
ruption within them, they presently conceive worse of their estate and
condition, as if none were so ill, or in as ill a case as they. Such should
be stayed by considering it is the general estate of all men, only the differ-
ence is, some see their sins more than others do ; and thus Solomon useth
it, 2 Chron. vi. 36, ' If any man sinneth against thee, as there is no man
that sinneth not ; ' and God himself useth it as an argument to move him
to mercy. ' The imaginations of man's heart are evil continually, there-
fore my Spirit shall not always strive with flesh,' Gen. vi. 3.

Doct. 6. In the next place, observe that God opens the heart and eyes of
his children to see and feel ivhat sin is, and keeps their eyes open, and their
consciences continually tender. The wicked are blind in most heinous
crimes of all. David he complains of this, that his sin was ever before
him, Ps. U. 3. And God threatens this, Ps. 1. 21, * I will set them before
thee ; ' and the reasons hereof are,

170 THE saint's comfoets:

Reason 1. First, To malte our judgments conformable to his in hatred of sin;
for we being his children, it is fit we should be of his image, and like to him.

Beason 2. Secondly, To make us ai)2nehend mercy the more dearly, and
thereby glorify him in it the more.

Reason 3. Thirdly, Because he woidd have its beg of him to cover our sins
from his eyes, that it may be covered from our eyes ; for the best cannot
shake off the sense of sin, be it ever so burthensome. But God keeps it in
our minds to humble us the more thoroughly.

Reason 4. Again, God's children have a new life ichich is sensible of the
least thing that is contrary to itself; and those that are in most perfect life
are most perfect in the sense of sin, though never so small, though but
motions. Where the sun shines most clear, then motes are most easily
seen ; and therefore the best Christians do complain most of corruptions,
for they see more than others do. Hence, therefore, we may know our
estate, whether we are still-born or have life. If we have life, we have light,
and can see and discern between good and evil. Some are still-born, yet
think they live. Thus are many, thinking themselves unblameable in con-
versation, yet in heart full of pride ; and like the Pharisees, count well of
themselves, nothing knowing what belongs to the Christian warfare. Others
are more bold, and their very lives bewray they think not of sin, but are
bold in their courses, proud in speech and carriage, contemptuous of
others and the means of salvation, contented with a little, and think any-
thing enough. But the worst of all are those that think indeed of sin, but
it is to defend it and maintain it by translation* and recrimination. They
will be sure to repay double, to those that tell them of their courses in
friendly manner.

Quest. But how shall we come to be sensible of sin ?

Direct. 1. First, Let us have the picture of the law in our hearts, seeing
all ill and the degrees thereof; also learn us to desiref to avoid sin, so to
endeavour to flee all occasions thereof, though never so small ; and to take
up all occasions of doing good ; and doing good spiritually from judgment,
affection, faith ; and consider the extent of the law, reaching to the least
thought.

Direct. 2. Secondly, Bring ourselves continually into the presence of God.
Human frailty appears in nothing more, than when it is brought to the light ;
opposites being compared illustrate one another. Consider therefore in
whose presence we are, what we are, what God is, what we have done,
what he commandeth ; and then, with Job, we shall abhor ourselves in dust
and ashes, though formerly we defended ourselves, Job xlii. 6.

Direct. 3. And because God is invisible, bring ourselves to that ivhich is
divine ; hear ive the word often unfolded, and we shall, with the unbeliever,
1 Cor. xiv. 24, ' be convinced, and falling down shall confess God's power
with it.'

Direct. 4. Furthermore, Let us converse with those that are better than
ourselves ; for the image and likeness of God is seen in his children. It is
the custom of many men to converse with the worst company, that they
may appear to be the best ; and thus do they increase an overweening self-
conceit in themselves.

Direct. 5. Let us also use to go to places visited uith God's corrections;
for seeing misery, the conscience retires to itself, considering of the ways
of sin, and how the devil pays those that serve him. And this use we
ought to make of objects of misery, to see God's correcting hand, else do

* That is, ' transference.' — G. f Qu. ' learn, as to desire . . . so '? &c. — Ed,

AN EXPOSITION UPON PS.U.M CXXX. 171

we provoke God, Isa. i. 3-5, ' who curseth such ; ' Jer. v. 3, and brand-
ing them with the brand of king Ahaz, ' this is Ahaz.' And while we
dehght ourselves with pleasing worldly objects, our eyes shut against sin,
but corrections and punishments makes them see and discern. All Christ's
admonitions could not make Judas see his sin of covetousness, which the
weight of a burdened conscience afterward so wrought, as could not be pacified.
Let us look therefore on the afflictions of other men, of our own persons and
estates, and know the least crosses comes not without a just cause.

Direct. 6. Lastly, Let us j^ray to God to give us tender hearts ; not to
deliver us up to a hard impenetrable heart, and to spiritual judgments, bat
to keep us continually sensible of our sins and least infirmities.

Boot. 7. In the next place, out of the manner of delivery of this speech,
we may gather thus much, that sin once truly felt is ever unsiipportahle, none
can stand under it. There are three impotencies in sinners : first, they
cannot see sm : Ps. xix. 12, ' Wlio can understand his errors.' Secondly,
when the Lord causes them to see their sins, they cannot justify themselves ;
and then, m the third place, they cannot bear the burden of them ; for
death, the wages thereof, none can bear or endure ; nay, God himself
cannot endure sin, Amos ii. 13— nay, the wounded conscience, which is
but a part of the wages thereof in this life, none can endure— but is
' pressed under them as a cart loaden with sheaves.' Christ he could not
endure them, but had such sense of them as if he had been quite forsaken :
' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' And angels could not
bear the burden, but were thrown down to hell thereby, and so angels of
light became angels of infernal darkness. Adam could not endure it, till
Christ raised him up by the promise of the blessed seed ; and therefore
much less can we since the fall, as it appears in Cain, Saul, Ahithophel,
Judas. _ The earth could not bear Korah and his company, and neither
would it bear us if we had our due. Sin is a debt we cannot answer : Job
IX. 3, ' We cannot answA' one of a thousand.'

Use 1. This therefore confutes the papists, who say that Christ hath
endured the great p>unishments ; hut there are other lighter punishments,
which tue also vnist xmdergo, as purgatory and the like ; to whom we say
the wages of the least sin is death. That which the angels could not satisfy
for, how shall we weak creatures.

Use^. Secondly, This may put a just defence into the mouths of carefid
Christians. Let others term them by what names of scorn they list, such
have good ground for what they do. They know what sin is, and have
felt the stmg thereof; and what they do, they do it in love to their souls.
As for them that scorn, they know there is more cause to pity them than
envy their estate. Though they can outswagger and outface sin now,
which none could undergo heretofore, and though they can with a grace
and authority, as they think, censure those that are careful, and themselves
swear and profane the holy name of God, shewing thereby a heart full of
unbehef andof unreverence,— which is more odious than the sin of swearing,
— yet there is a time coming, when God will set their sins in order before
them, m such manner that they shall melt away in the sense of the multi-
tude and greatness of them, without hope of relief; when they shall see
nothing but vengeance and death before their eyes, and without all manner
of hope they shall die.

Quest. But how comes it to pass, will some say, that many nevertheless
seem to bear their sins well enough, and live and" die without tears ?
Ans. I answer, The estate of such may be dangerous, for Christ is not

172

THE SAINT S COMFORTS ;

sweet till sin be bitter. But God is infinite in wisdom, not presently bur-
dening every sinner, nor comforting those that shall desire it. For then
who would not be good, and who would be ill ? And if evermore comforts
were present, what need were there of faith ? And therefore, this is most
especially true at the day of judgment, when the wicked shall be blown
away as chaff, Ps. i. 4-6 ; when there will be a guilty conscience, watch-
ing devils, and an angry God. Where shall the wicked then appear?
And there must be a hell hereafter, that men may then feel what now they
will not beheve.

Use of direction. Wherefore let us learn to submit ourselves to the correct-
ing hand of God, saying, ' It is thy mercy we are not consumed,' Lam.
iii. 22 ; considering that this light affliction is nothing to that we deserve,
or that Christ suffered for us, or that the damned suffer in hell, or to that
joy we have laid up for us in heaven ; and therefore as it is in Micah
vii. 9, ' Let us bear the indignation of the Lord, because we have sinned
against him.'

Secondly, Let us justifj God. We have deserved affliction. He hath
dealt justly with us: Neh. ix. 31, seq., ' Kighteousness belongeth to him,
but to us shame and confusion of face,' Dan. ix. 7.

Thirdly, Let its moderate our censure of those that are dejected and out
of heart, through sense of sin : Prov. xviii. 19, * A wounded spirit, who can
bear ? ' ^ Impute it not therefore to melancholy, or despair and madness,
or as Eli unadvisedly did, to drunkenness, when he reprehended Hannah,
1 Sam. i. 14 ; for can we think it strange, when God sees sin in his chil-
dren, that he causes them to see it, and that when they see it they should
shew it in their outward gestures ? No ; it is no light burden, that a man
may run away with.

Ver. 4. ' But there is forgiveness with thee.'

This verse contains a blessed appeal. God hath a court of justice, and
a tribunal of mercy. If God should examine in justice what we have done,
we could not stand : * but there is mercy or forgiveness with the Lord,'
Therefore it is an appeal from the throne of justice to the mercy-seat; and
yet this is not so properly an appeal but it admits of limitations. For,
first, appeals are used in aid of those that are innocent. Now we by nature
are all unclean. Again , appeals are grounded for the most joart upon discovenj
of insufficiency, or of violent indirect courses in the managing of the cause.
This can no ways be attributed to God, who is not rigorous nor insufficient,
or swa3^ed by indirect means ; for he accepts the person of none. Again,
an appeal is from an inferior court to a higher. But here it is not so, for
we appeal from God to God ; from God armed with justice, examining by
law, to God a father armed with love, looking upon us in the comfortable
promises of the gospel ; from Sinai to Sion, from Moses to Christ. And
in this appeal, as in others, the former sentence of the law, whereby we are
'cursed,' is utterly disannulled, so as 'no condemnation is to those that
are in Christ,' Kom. viii. 1. But this belongs to such (as it is in other
appeals) ivho must see themselves condemned, before they can have the benefit
ot this appeal. Thex'e is no flying to mercy unless we find ourselves in
need.^ But to come to some observations. In the first place, we may see
by this example that the soul of a Christian apprehends God according to its
estate, to comfort itself, and therefore beholds him as a forgiving God.
And therefore the children of God, when they are at the lowest, they
recover themselves with something they fiind in God's nature and promise,

AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. 173

and to that end have a spirit of faith to trust and rely upon God ; and those
that have it not, sink lower and lower.

Doct. 1. Here we may observe, that the Christian soul, once stung ivith
sin, flies to the free mercy of God for ease. Let a sinner be in Haman's
estate, tell him of all pleasures, whatever they be, he cares not ; nothing
but pardon delights his soul. David, a king, a prophet, a man after God's
own heart. Acts xiii. 22, beloved of his people, wonderfully graced, yet
being troubled with his sin, could not stand. He respects not his outward
privileges, prerogatives, majesty, and the like. No ; he is the blessed
man to whom God imputes no sin, Ps. xxxii. 1. And this is the reason
why so much is attributed still to the blood of Christ, everyivhere, in the
Scripture ; because the soul once pricked, finds no ease nor cure but in it
principally, yet not excluding the other merits and obedience of Christ.
And David, when he would raise up his soul to praise God, describes him
to be a God ' forgiving sin and healing infirmities,' Ps. ciii. 3 ; and there-
fore we should, when our consciences are burdened, go as Joab did and
catch hold on the horns of the altar, to the mercy of God. There live
and there die. And though the conflict be never so great, we shall at
length find that, as Jacob, we shall be children of Israel, and such as shall
prevail with God, and that for our depth of misery, he hath a depth also
of mercy; and this mercy will appear either in preserving us from sin,
before we are fallen into it, or rescuing us from it if once we be fallen
into it.

Quest. But how comes it, may some say, that God forgives ? Doth he
it without satisfactions ?

Ans. I answer. No.

Quest. How then is it done, seeing he hath decreed that without blood
shall be no remission ? Heb. ix. 22.

Ans. I answer. This is done in Christ.

Quest. But why is he not mentioned here, nor in the Old Testament
neither ?

Ans. I answer, He was laid down to us in the Old Testament, in types and
promises ; for what other was the paschal lamb but * the Lamb of God
taking away the sins of the world,' by sprinkling our hearts with his
blood ? He was the priest that, before he could open an entrance into the
holy of holies for us, must first shed blood and ofier sacrifice. What
signified the ark with the law covered within it, the mercy-seat upon it,
and over them two cherubins covering one another, but Christ our ark
covering the curses of the law, in whom is the ground of all mercy ?
' which things the angels desire to pry into,' 1 Pet. i. 12, as into the pat-
tern of God's deep wisdom. And whenas any prayed in the temple they
looked towards the mercy- seat, what meaneth it other than that, whenever
we do pray to God, we should behold Christ, through whom God appears
to be merciful and gracious ? What signified the temple, towards which
they looked when they prayed, 2 Chron. vi. 38, Dan. vi. 10, but that we
in our prayers should evermore have reference to our temple Christ Jesus ?
And being thus assured, we may safely pass the flaming fire of God's jus-
tice. If there were any other to be trusted besides Christ, there would be
no peace of conscience. The sinner would argue, I am a creature, my sin
is infinite ; no creature can satisfy, they are not infinite ; angels cannot
stand ; it must be an infinite majesty that must satisfy, and it must be with
blood. Now, Christ by his blood hath obtained eternal redemption for us,
and therefore none but Christ, none but Christ ! He is God-man, making

174 THE saint's comforts:

God and man at one. It is his nature, and it is bis office. So as God is
just as well as merciful ; for as it is Eom. iii. 24th and 25th verses, ' God
the Father hath proposed or set forth Christ ' in types and figures * to be a
propitiation,' alluding to the mercy-seat, * to declare his righteousness and
justice, that he may be just in punishing sin,' that is in Christ; < and a
justifier of the sinner that believes in Christ Jesus,' because he accepted of
Christ's satisfaction, so as his mercy devised a remedy to satisfy his justice.
Thus much in general ; now to come to particulars. First, take it exclusively,
and we may observe,

Doct. 1. That only God can release a guilty conscience ; only he can speak
peace to a soul in distress. Ministers indeed have keys to open and shut
heaven ; but they use them only ministerially, as they find persons dis-
posed, but Christ independently. Now, then, whenas man assumes this
prerogative to himself, as the popes were wont to do, giving indulgences, it
is no other than to set them in the place of God. ' I, even I, forgive sin,'
saith God, Jer. xxxi. 84. None can quiet the conscience but one that is
above the conscience, which is God, who is only * the party offended ;
though there be also an offence against men. Tlus oitr/Jd to comfort tis,
that u-e have to do with a forgiving God, Neh. ix. 31. There is none like
to him, to whom it is natural to remit and forgive sin. It is his name :
Exod. xxxiv. 6, ' Forgiving iniquities, transgressions, and sins,' all manner
of sins ; sins against knowledge and against conscience ; with him is
plentiful forgiveness.

Doct. 2. Secondly, Observe that as God only forgives sin, so he ever
forgives sin. It is always his nature, as the fire always burns ; as he is
Jehovah, he is merciful. John i. 29, Christ he is * the Lamb of God,' that
doth take away the sins of the world. It is a perpetual act ; as we say the
sun doth shine, the spring doth run. He is, Zeeh. xiii. 1, that 'fountain
that is opened for sin and uncleanness.' Mercy is his nature, and forgive-
ness is an effect of his mercy.

Obj. Therefore it is no satisfying objection that the distressed soul will
be ready to make, that God was merciful to David and Peter, but how can
he be to me, miserable sinner ? For God, as he forgave Peter, Paul, David,
so he forgives now. He is a fountain of mercy never drawn dry. He is
unchangeable ; and therefore we are not consumed, Mai. iii. 6 ; and Christ
is the same ' yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' The consideration of
this should be as a perpetual picture in our hearts.

Doct. 3. Thirdly, Hence we may gather, that God's mercy is free, and
from himself. Though in us is sin and iniquity, yet in thee is mei-cy ; and
therefore God saith, I do not this for your sakes, but for mine own sake,
Ezek. xxxvi. 22. Yet must not this be understood so as if it were freely
and only from God the Father, excluding Christ. But therefore it is, in
that we shall stand in need of no satisfiictory merits of our own. Away
therefore with popish doctrines of satisfactions by our own works. The
holy mon saith not, with thee is justice to take my works as satisfaction
for my sin. No ; though this holy man were a gracious man, yet mercy is
all his plea. And if the question be, how the sinner stands free from
punishment and entitled to all good, it is from forgiveness, which is from
God's mercy, grounded on Christ's satisfaction. All is laid upon him, Isa.
liii. 5. He was woimded for our transgi'essions ; he bore our sorrows; he
was made sin for us, that knew no sin, 2 Cor. v. 21. The nature of man
will hardly stoop to this divine truth. But the Spirit teacheth us to rely
* That is, ' alone is.'— G.

AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. 175

on the free forgiveness of God in Christ ; and therefore Christ and his
apostles bid such ' beUeve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved.' , We may think this an easy lesson. But hereafter, when God
shall open our sins and lay them upon our consciences, they will then tell
us fearful things. There is no hope ! thou must be damned ! Against
such times lay up grounds of comfort ; and let this text be a haven to
resort to. It is true, ' if thou markest what is done amiss, who can stand ?
but there is mercy with thee that thou be feared.'

Doct. 4. Fourthly, We may from hence observe, that the best Christian
and most gracious man alive needs forr/iveuess of his sins; for where the con-
science is enlightened it will discover what corruption it finds, and so the
necessity of being delivered. So 1 John ii. 1, ' If any man sin, we have
an advocate ; ' that is, such as I am, have need of an advocate ; and one
reason may be, because indeed such see in their sins much more ingratitude
than others, for they sin against the knowledge of God's love to their souls
in forgiving former sins ; and then to fall into sin again, it is as broken
bones, Ps. li. 8. And the apostle, 2 Cor. v. 20, speaking to the believing
Corinthians, ' I beseech you to be reconciled to God ; ' for Christ was made
sin for us ; for you, and for me. Even we sin daily, and stand in need of
reconciliation. We must daily pray, ' Forgive us our sins,' yea, the best of
the disciples must do it. If we come not with this petition, ' our sins are
written with a pen of iron, and with the claw of an adamant,' Job xix. 24.*

Doct. 5. Fifthly, This mercy and forgiveness is general to all that cast them-
selves on his free mercy. It is Satan's subtilty to persuade us at the first,
that sin is nothing ; but when it is committed and cannot be recalled, then
he tells us it is greater than can be pardoned. No. The gospel is the
power of God to salvation to all that do believe. Let none despair. It is
a greater sin than the former. Deus non est desperantium pater, sed judex.
God's pardon is general, to all persons, that repent of all sin, whereby he
frees them from all evil. He pardons all persons : Manasses the sorcerer,
Cornelius, Zaccheus, persecuting Paul. The parable of the lost sheep, the
lost groat, the prodigal son, testifies it. God offers it freely, ' Why will
you die, house of Israel' ? Jer. xxvii. 13. He complains when it is
neglected : ' Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you
together' ! Mat. xxiii. 37. ' He threatens' because men will not hear, and
' he pardons all sins.' There is no disease above the skill of this Physician.
He healeth all thy sins and all thy infirmities, Ps. ciii. 1-3. Yea, if it
were possible that the sinner against the Holy Ghost could repent, there
were hope in Israel concerning this ! He hath pardon for sin long lived
in. * At what time soever a sinner repenteth, he will blot out his wicked-
ness,' 2 Chron. xx. 9. What though they be never so enormous ? God's
thoughts are not as ours, Isa. Iv. 8. Conscience may be overcharged with
sin. We may play the harlot with many lovers ; yet return to me, saith
the Lord, Jer. iii. 1. He that bids Peter forgive seventy-seven times, f
shall not he have plenteous redemption ? What proportion is there be-
tween the sin of a creature, and the mercy of an infinite Majesty ? He frees
from all ill, from all punishment. His forgiveness is perfect. Though we
be as red as crimson with sin, he will make us white as snow, Isa. i. 18.
He removes our sins from his presence as * far as the east is from the
west,' Ps. ciii. 12.

Quest. But some will say, Why corrects he then his children ?

* Cf. A. B. Davidson's ' Commentary' in loc, and also Caryl. — G.

t Kather seventy seven-times ; that is, seventy times seven times. — G.

176 THE saint's cojifokts:

Ans. I answer, not from revenging justice, for he is our Father ; and
what he does, it comes from love, and is mingled with love and moderated
with love to our strength, and are turned by love to our good. When he
follows us with prosperity, he is our alluring Father ; and when he corrects
us, he is our correcting, not punishing. Father, Heb. xii. from 3d to the
12th. Yet let not this be sinisterly taken. It is spoken only to the humble
heart, that is broken with sin, which is the sixth general observation ; there
vnist he first sight of sin, then sense of miserij, then confession of sin and
begging pardon, or else none is granted. For God bestows pardon so as
may be most for his glory and our comfort. What glory can he reap by
pardoning those that will sin, ' because grace may abound,' Eom. vi. 1, and
so ' will turn the grace of God into wantonness ' ? Jude 4. And what comfort
can we have of the pardon of our sins till we see our sins, and feel what it is
to want pardon ? Sight of sin and mercy are inseparable. Sometimes the
sense of pardon is delayed, to make us hunger after it ; sometimes it follows
suddenly after sight of sin, as it did to Matthew and Zaccheus, Mat. xi. 28.
But one must go before the other : first, must the wind of the sight of God's
anger come breaking and rending the rocky hard hearts that are within us ;
then comes the soft still voice speaking peace to the humble soul. The
reasons may be, first, to set an edge on our j^raijers for forgiveness, else who
would care for it. Secondly, to make ns highly to esteem forgiveness of sin.
The promises are sweet to the dejected soul, as a pardon is to the con-
demned person. Thirdly, tliat God might have the more glory and thanks.
When we find the bitterness of sin, as it is Jer. ii. 19, to be sweetened by
God's mercy, then ' My soul, praise thou the Lord ; and all that is within
me, praise his holy name.' He forgives all my sin, and heals all my
infirmities, Ps. ciii. 1, 2, 3. And, lastly, because our sins nnrepented keep
good from ns, and us from the fountain of all good, and must be removed before
there can be any way for mercy.

This therefore justifies those ministers that in these days of the gospel
do enforce the law ; and people must not be ofl'ended thereat, but suffer
their consciences to be laid open, that the word may come close and home
to them ; and secondly, they must use the means, to come to a sense and
feeling of their sin. To which end let »s make sin as odious and dangerous
in our eyes as ire can. It is odious to God. To us it is poison and leprosy
though we cherish it, and hate ministers and friends for touching it. It is
abomination to God. It thrusts him out of our hearts, and puts in the
devil, God's arch enemy. It causes us to prefer base pleasure, fading pro-
fits, before the favour and mercy and love of God. Must not this needs be
hateful to God ? But then how much more intolerable are those sins that
bring neither profit nor pleasure, but causes us to thrust out God, even
because we will ? But this is not all, for as it is abominable to God, so it
is dangerotis to us ; for whence comes judgments ? Whence is it that the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven ? Kom. i. 18. Whence is sickness,
disgrace, troubles ? All these are the fruits of sin. Nothing makes us
miserable but sin. Take a man when he lies a-dying. Ask him what
troubles him ? Oh ! he cries out of sin, of the wrath of God. He feels
not sickness, even as the gout is not felt by one that hath a fit of the stone
upon him. Let us think of this in time ; let us shame the devil, shame
ourselves. But is this all ? No. Judas saw his sin and confessed, yet
was he never the better. He wanted that which should make his repent-
ance perfect. He wanted faith to lay hold on pardon. A poor man is fit
for treasure, but unless he lay hold on treasure, he shall never be rich.

AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX.

177

Therefore faith and repentance are ever joined in the gospel. Eepent and
beheve the gospel, as was said to the jailor. So Christ saith, ' Come to me,'
Mat. xi. 28. Christ came to satisfy for all sin, to cure all diseases, but
they must first come to him, and say, ' Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make
me clean,' Mat. viii. 2 ; and to such as these I may say, as they said to
the blind man, ' Be of comfort, for Christ calls thee,' Mark x. 49.

' That thou mayest be feared.'

Fear in this place is taken for the spiritual worship of God, arising from
a reverential fear mingled with love. ' Fear God and keep his command-
ments,' Eccles. xii. 13, is the whole duty of man. So that these words
being considered with the former, brings this observation to our con-
sideration.

Doct. That GocVs goodness, forgiveness, grace, and mercy, is a means to
stir 7ip Jiis children to all duties ; and therefore we are commanded to do all
things in fear : to ' work out our salvation with fear,' Philip, ii. 12, eat and
drink with fear ; and in Jude 12, the wicked are branded with this, ' that
they eat without fear.' So as whatever we do, we must do it in fear, shew-
ing the reverence of God continually, and jealousy over ourselves, lest we
should stop the light of God's countenance from us.

Quest. But it will be said, How is it then said ' that we should serve him
without fear,' 1 Cor. xvi. 10, being redeemed from our enemies?

Ans. I answer. There is a twofold fear : one a slavish fear, whereof that
place is meant. AVe should serve him without fear of damnation, of punish-
ment, and of judgment. But the fear that we speak of here is a fear of
reverence and love, that stirs us up to worship him.

Quest. But how doth it stir to duty ? may some say.

Ans. I answer, first, it stirs up faith in our hearts. Hope of forgiveness
will cause us to cast ourselves into their arms whom we have offended.
Where no hope of mercy is, there follows nothing but fear, causing us to
fly away ; even as we see proclamation of pardon to rebels causes them to
come in, but the contrary makes them run away. Again, sense of forgive-
ness works more love. David's murder, Paul's persecution, Peter's denial,
caused abundance of love. Where many sins are forgiven, there will be
much love, Luke vii. 47 ; and where much love is, there will be obedience
to all God's commandments, for ' love is the fulfilling of the law,' Eom.
xiii. 10. Contrarily, desperation is the ground of all sin. This is the
gi'ound of all hate. The devils they hate God. Because they know there
is no remedy left for them, therefore they cannot endure the remembrance
of him. Contrariwise, as it is Ps. Ixv. 2, ' Unto thee shall all flesh come.'
Why '? ' For thou hearest prayer.' Again, fear and forgiveness are joined
in the new covenant. ' I will put my fear in thy heart, and thou shaltnot
depart from me,' Jer. xxxii. 40 ; and Christ, to all his, is both king, priest,
and prophet. He comes to all by water as well as blood. He is becoaie
righteousness, wisdom, and holiness, 1 Cor. i. 30. Again, a Christian he
will, hg reason, enforce this on himself, as Paul did, 2 Cor. v. 15. Christ
died for us ; therefore must we live to him, and not to ourselves.

Use 1. This therefore should cause us to take heed of all thoxights of
despair. Let it be enough that we have broken the law ; let us not pull a
greater sin on us by denying the gospel, the mercies and truths of God.
Let us by any means take heed, for Satan will join with guilty consciences,
speaking with cursed Cain, ' My sin is greater than can be pardoned,' Gen.
iv. 13. No article of our creed is so much opposed by him, as that of the
forgiveness of sin by Christ's merits, which is the very hfe and soul of a

VOL. VI. ^

178 THE saint's comforts:

churcli. All the former articles of the creed are perfected in this, and all
the following articles are eflects hereof.

Use 2. Secondly, This doctrine furnishes an answer to the 2'>(tpists, who
lay scandals * on the doctrine of free justification by the merits of Christ,
without our own works ; saying that we nourish thereby carelessness in a
Christian life, whenas the Scripture, and the Spirit of God in the hearts of
those that are truly regenerate, do reason quite contrary. ' There is mercy
with thee, that thou mayest be feared ;' not that we may live as we list,
for whom God forgives, he first truly humbles ; whom he washes, he gives
hearts to keep themselves clean ; so as with the burnt child, they dread
the fire ever after. No ; it is themselves that overthrow good works, while
they ground them on false grounds. For either they do them to satisfy
God's wrath, which is slavish, or to merit by them, which is a token of a
hireling ; and most of their works are such, as if God should ask them,
' Who required them at their hands ?' Isa. i. 12, they could never be able
to answer. They, while they talk of good works, in the mean time over-
throw faith and love, which should be the ground of a good work. What
can they do more than a Cain or a Judas, or the wickedest man alive.

Secondly, We may hence gather a ground of discerning our estate, whereby
we shall know whether God's mercy and forgiveness belong to us or not ;
for it is impossible, where there is no inward worship of God in the heart,
where there is no fear and jealous}' of sin, where there is no con-
science of swearing, blaspheming, and such abominations, that ever such
yet had any true taste of God's mercy and forgiveness. Let them not take
comfort by the example of the thief on the cross, that cried for mercy and
had it ; for there is a time of grace, and there are some sinners, as those
that flatter themselves in a course of sin, thinking to repent when they will,
against which the wrath of God will smoke, Deut. xxix. 20. Therefore let
not such soothe up themselves. Those that have their sins forgiven do
fear God, Such fear not God, and therefore their sins are not forgiven.
Many shall say in that day, * Lord, Lord,' to whom Christ will profess, ' he
never knew them,' Mat. vii. 23 ; and therefore let us never assure our-
selves of forgiveness, farther than we find in us a hatred of sin. For a man
to live in a course of known sin, it stops the current of God's mercy ; who
will wound the ' hairy scalp of such as despise the patience and long-suffer-
ing of God,' Rom. ii. 4. While we have time, therefore, and are young,
before lusts settle themselves in us, serve the Lord with fear ; deny him
not the service due to him. If we do, it is just with God to take us away
suddenly, or to deliver us over to an impenetrable hard heart ; and when we
die, that God should take away from us our senses, or to give over our
consciences to such a horror and trembling fear, as shall not suffer us to
come so near as to have any hope of mercy, but die in despair. Let us
pray, therefore, against a careless heart, and say to him. Lord, thou earnest
to redeem and set me free from the works of the devil ! Lord, deliver me
from the power of sin and of my own corruption. For we may assure our-
selves, he that never discerned this hatred of sin in him, never asked par-
don from his heart ; and he that never asks it shall never have it.

Use. Let us in the next place learn thereby to go the right way, to work
assurance of forgiveness: first, learn to see our misery; then, get ])ersuasion
that there is a remedy ; then, get knowledge thereof ; and then heg it. It is a
preposterous course that many men take. They will change their ill courses,
but without confession or acknowledgment of sin ; and therefore they turn
* That is, ' take offence at.' — G.

AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. 179

indeed, but it is from one sin to another : from being dissolute they will
become covetous, and so change to the worse ; for they change not from
right grounds ; not from love to God and hatred of sin, but ever from the
love of one reigning sin to another. For all such, and all other, that
either find* their sin, or think not of it, this Scripture is of excellent use ;
and we may speak of it as St Paul, 2 Tim. iii. 16, speaks of all the Scrip-
ture, * It is profitable for doctrine,' teaching us what we are by nature since
the fall ; wherein we may have remedy of our misery ; how and in what
manner to attain the remedy. It is profitable for ' reproof of the doctrine
of justification by works ; and it is profitable for ' correction' of our lives,
teaching us to avoid despair, and yet withal to avoid security. It is pro-
fitable for ' comfort' to all those that are dejected by sin, by considering
the mercy of God in Christ, which is more and greater than sin in us, if
we have faith to lay hold on it ; so that we may say with St Augustine,
Ego admisi, nude tn damnare potes we, sed non aniisisti unde tu salvare
■poles me.

Ver. 5. * I wait for the Lord, yea, my soul waiteth.

These words do shew the estate and disposition of the holy man after his
prayer. Though he had formerly sense of mercy and pardon, yet he waits
for more full and sweet apprehension thereof. In them we may observe,
first, though God he exceeding gracious, yet there is viatter of imiting, so
long as we live here on earth, for he gives not all the fulness of his blessing
at once. Though he may give taste of pardon of sin in present, yet not
presently deliverance out of danger. ' The light of the righteous shineth
more and more unto the perfect day,' Prov. iv. 18. There is no day that
is perfected in an instant ; and the reasons hereof may be,

Reason 1. First, To force us to search our souls, whether we be fit for
blessing; whether we be thoroughly humbled, and have thoroughly
repented or not. Thus dealt he with Jonas, and thus with the children of
Israel for Achan's cause.

Reason 2. Secondly, It may be a means to stir 7<s up to more earnestness
in seeking : to make us like the woman of Canaan, more earnest the more
she was repelled.

Reason 3. Thirdly, He gives us occasion of waiting, to shew the truth and
soundness of his graces in its ; otherwise should we have no means to try
how the grace in us would serve us in time of need.

Reason 4. Fourthly, Hereby God doth endear those favours that xoe tvant,
that it may come the more toelcome to us, and we he the more thankful for it.
Thus God dealt with this holy man ; and thus doth he with his church.
For while we live here we are always children of hope ; not miserable,
because we have a sweet taste of what we hope for, and not perfectly happy,
because we want fulness. Before Christ they hoped for his coming in the
flesh ; since Christ, we look for his ' second coming in glory ;' in grace we
look for glory ; and when our souls are in glory, they look for the redemp-
tion of the bodies, and for the day of restoring of all things. ' How long,
Lord, how long ?' Eev, vi. 10. Else would this life be heaven to us ; and
we should not desire or pray, ' Lord, let thy kingdom come.*

Use. And for use, This shoidd lohet in us our desires and prayers for ovr
heavenly estate ; and not make our heaven here on earth, but deaire ear-
nestly the full harvest, by considering how excellent the first-fruits of glory
in this life are ; and with the creature, Eom. viii. 19, ' wait, and expect,

* Qu. 'hide'?— Ed.

180 THE saint's comforts.

and long, and groan for the time of the dissokition of all things ;' and
make this a note to discern of our estate ; for it is a certain infallible token
of a good frame of spirit in us, if we can long for that better life in the
fulness, that we have here ; that we can desire to be with Christ. Furj^her-
more, note this as a difference hetweeii the estates of the wiched and the godly.
The wicked must look for worse and worse continually. His best is here,
and while he hath this world ; but the godly, their worst is here, their best
is to come.

THE CHURCH'S COMPLAINT AND CONFIDENCE.

NOTE.

' The Churcli's Complaint ' forms a portion of ' The Beams of Divine Liglit '
(4to, 1639). Its separate title-page will be found below.* For general title-page,
see Vol. V. page 220. G.

* T H E

C H V R C H E S

Complaint and

Confidence.

In three Sermons,

By the late Reverend and I^earned

Divine KichardSibs,

Doctor in Divinity, IMaster of Katherine Hall in

Camhridije, and sometimes Preacher at

Grayes-Inne.

Lam. 1. 20.

Behold Lord for I am in distresse, my bowells are troubled,
mine heart is turned icithin me, for I have grievoiisli/
rebelled, abroad the sivord bercaveth, at hovie there is
as death.

L OKDOX,
Printed by G. 31. for Mcholas Bourne and Eaj'ha Harford, 1639.

THE CHURCH'S COMPLAINT AND CONFIDENCE.

But ws are all as an unclean thing, and all our rigJiteousness are as filthy
rags ; and we all do fade as a leaf ; and our iniquities, like the iuind,
have taken us aioay. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that
stirreth up himself to take hold of thee : for thou hast hid thy face from
MS, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. But noiu, Lord,
thou art our Father : ive are the clay, and thou our potter ; and me are
all the work of thine hands. — Isaiah LXIV. G-8.

The words are part of a blessed form of prayer prescribed to the churcli
long before they were in captivity. It begins at the 15th verse of the
former chapter, ' Look down from heaven ; behold from the habitation of
thy holiness,' &c. The blessed prophet Isaiah was carried with the wings
of prophetical spirit over many years, and sees the time to come, the time
of the captivity ; and God by his Spirit doth direct them a prayer, and
this is part of the form. For God in mercy to his people, as he foresaw
before what would become of them, so he vouchsafes them comfort before-
hand, and likewise he prescribes a form of prayer beforehand. It is very
useful to use forms. The 102d Psalm, it is a form of pouring out the soul
to God when any man is in misery, as ,you see in the preface. But that
by the way. These verses are a part of a form prescribed for the pouring
forth an afflicted soul ; ' We are all as an unclean thing, and all our right-
eousness,' &c. The words they are.

First, An humble confession of sin.

And first, of the sins of their nature, of their persons themselves, ' We
are all as an unclean thing.'

And then, of the sins of actions : ' all our righteousness is as filthy rags.'

And then, in the third place, a confession of the sin of non-proficiency,
of obduration, and senselessness, that notwithstanding the corrections of
God, they were little the better : ' There is none that calleth upon thy
name, or that stirs up himself to take hold of thee.'

In the second place, there is an humble complaint of the miserable
estate they were in by their sins : ' We all fade as a leaf ; our iniquities,
like the wind, have taken us away : thou hast hid thy face from us, and
consumed us, because of our iniquities.' The complaint is set forth in
these four clauses.

184 THE church's complaint and confidence.

And then an humble supplication and deprecation to God, in ver. 8, and
so forward. ' Now, Lord, thou art our Father : we are the clay, thou art
the potter; we are all the work of thy hands,' &c. These be the parcels
of this portion of Scripture.

' But we are all as an unclean thing,' &c.

Here is, first, an huuihle confession. And first, observe in general what
afilictions will do, especially afflictions sanctified. That which all the
prophetical sermons could not do, that which all the threatenings could not
do, affliction now doth. Now when they were in captivity and base estate,
they fall a humbling themselves. So the prodigal, nothing could humble
him but afflictions. ' By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept,'
Ps. cxxxvii. 1. All the denunciations of judgments before they came to
the waters of Babylon could not make them weep. One affliction will do
more than twenty sermons. When God teacheth and chastiseth too, when
together with teaching there is correction, then it is eff'ectual. And this is
the reason of God's course ; why, when nothing else will do, he humbles
his people with afilictions, because he cannot otherwise teach them.

Affliction withdraws that which is the fuel of sin ; for what doth our
sinful disposition feed on ? Upon pleasures, and vanities, upon the
honours of this life, and riches, &c. Now when affliction either takes these
things away, or embitters them if we have them, then that which sin carried
us to, and that we fed our own base earthly lusts with, being gone, when
a man is stripped of these, he begins to know himself what he is, he was
drunk before. I deem a man in prosperity little better than drunk. He
knows neither God, nor himself, nor the world. He knows it not to be as
a vain world. He knows not himself to be vanity, to be an empty creature,
except he consist* in God, and make his peace with him. He knows not
God to be such a holy God, and such an angry God for sin. But when
affliction comes, and withdraws and strips him of those things that made
him fierce against God, then he begins to know God, and to tremble at the
judgments of God when he begins to smart. He begins to know himself
to be a madman, and a fool, and a sot. He did not know himself before
in his jollity. And then he knows the world indeed as a vain world.
Blessed be that affliction that makes us know a gracious and good God, and
the creature to be a vain creature, and ourselves out of the favour of God
to be nothing. You see what afflictions will do.

God doth use to break men, as men use to break horses. They ride
them over hedge and ditch, and over ploughed lands, uneven grounds, and
gall them with the spur and with the bit, and all to make them tractable ;
and then afterward they ride them gently and meekl}^ and rather so than
otherwise. So God is fain to carry his children over ploughed lands ; he
is fain to break them in their wickedness, to bring their ways upon their
heads ; he is fain to gall them, and humble them every kind of way, that
they may carry him, that he ma}'- bring their spirits under him, that he
may lead them in the ways that lead to their own comfort.

Use. Let us never murmur, therefore, at God's hand, but willingly yield
at the first. What doth a stubborn horse get, but the spur and stripes ?
And what doth a man get, that stands out when God comes to humble him
by affliction, and intends his good ? Nothing but more stripes. To come
to the parts.

' We are all as an unclean thing,' &c.

« That is, = stand.— G.

THE CHUKCH'S COMPLAINT AND CONFIDENCE. 185

Here, first, you see there is an humble confession. I will not enlarge
myself in the point of humiliation, but speak a little, because this is the day
of humiliation : the occasion is for humiliation. All this is to bring us low,
to humble us, to make us know ourselves. Without humiliation, Christ
will never be sweet unto us, and the benefit of health, &c., will never be
precious to us. I mean by humiliation, when God humbles us, and we
humble ourselves ; when we join with God. When God's humbling of us
and our humbling of ourselves go together, then mercy is sweet, and favour
and protection is sweet, when God pours his judgments on others, and
spares us.

Now humiliation, it is either real (or inward), or verbal.

Real humiliation indeed, that is, our humbling ourselves by fasting,
especially when it is joined with reformation of our wicked ways, or else it
is a mockery of God, as it is in Isa. Iviii., ' to hang down the head for a
while,' and in the mean time to have a hard heart, to shut up our bowels to
our brethren ; but that is a real kind of humiliation, when we think our-
selves unworthy of the creatures, of meat or drink, of any refreshing, for
this humihation of fasting is a kind of profession, though we speak not so,
that we are unworthy of these things. But all is nothing, without inward
humiliation of the soul. Verbal humiliation is in words, as we shall see
after in confession ; and it must come from inward humiliation of spirit.

Use. Therefore, considering it is here the first disposition of God's people,
let us labour to work upon ourselves those considerations that may make
us humble. I will name a few.

1. First, To bring ourselves to the glass of the law. Examine ourselves
how short we have been of every commandment.

2. But especially bring ourselves to the gospel. We hope to be saved by
Christ ; and have we mourned for our sins ' as one mourneth for his first-
born ' ? Zech. xii. 10. Our sins have wounded Christ. Have we preferred
Christ, in our thoughts, above all the things in the world ? Have they all
been dung to us ? Have we had that blessed esteem of the gracious pro-
mises of the gospel, and the prerogatives therein set forth, that they have
been so precious to us, that we have undervalued all to them, as St Paul
did ? A base esteem of the gospel is a great sin : ' How shall we escape,
if we neglect so great salvation ?' Heb. ii. 3. Put case we be not enemies
to the ministry and to hoUness of life, expressed in the gospel, as many
cursed creatures are ; yet a base esteem and undervaluing in our thoughts
is a thing punishable. ' How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salva-
tion ? ' Have we walked worthy of the dignity we are called to by the
gospel ? Have we carried ourselves so in spiritual things, as to rule our
base lusts ? Have we been careful of private prayer, to ofier ourselves to
God as priests ? Are we not pressed in St Paul's epistles, ' to carry our-
selves worthy of our profession ?' Eph. iv. 1 ; and have we done so ? Let
us bring our carriage, and see how proportionable it is to God's advancing
of us in these glorious times of the gospel, and this will bring us on our
knees.

We are ashamed of a little unkindness to men. But when we consider
how unkind we have been to God, that thought not his dear Son, and heaven
and happiness, too much for us ; besides other favours, that he protects,
and clothes, and feeds us every day, and yet we have not been answerable :
these considerations would humble us, proportionable to our carriage to
men. Can we be ashamed to offer an unkindness to men, and are
we not ashamed, cannot we be abashed with this, that we have carried

186

THE CHURCH S COMPLAINT AND CONFIDENCE.

ourselves so towards God ? It comes from atheism and infidelity of heart,
that either we believe not these things to be good, or else that we have not
our part and portion in them. Could we ever be so dead and dull-hearted
else?

3. Again, That we may be humbled, let us call to mind, now in this day
of humiliation, our special sins. We may soon know them. Our consciences
and our enemies will upbraid us for them, and we are loath to hear of them
above all, either by the ministry or by our friends. We wish, above all,
that the preacher would not speak of them, and fret if he do ; and our hearts
run upon them above all. So let us search our false hearts, which way
they run ; and now, in the day of our abasement, let us think what would
lie heaviest on our conscience, if God should take us now with sickness or
sudden death. Let us think with ourselves, What is the sin that would
afflict me most ? that would stagger me most ? that would shake my faith
most ? whether it be filthiness, or profaneness, or swearing, or injustice ;
and whether have I made satisfaction or no ? Let me examine, if God
should strike me with his arrow now, what sin would rob me of my com-
fort, and make me afraid to yield my soul to God ? Now think of it. This
is the way to be humbled. You may now bring yourselves to consider of
that that at other times you will not give yourselves leisure to do. W^hat
are days of fasting for, but to give ourselves leisure, that we may not think
of meat, and drink, and business ? These days should be days of rest, that
we may think of that which concerns our souls. Take the advantage when
thou restest from thinking of other business. Think with thine own
soul, what will lie heaviest upon thy soul. This is required to humiliation.
This real humiliation that is outward, it is a protestation of the inward ;
and verbal humiliation is but an expression of what we do inwardly.

There are two things wondrous necessary, before the soul can be in the
right frame it should be in.

First, The soul must apprehend deeply what distance it hath from God,
what alienates it from God, before it can be wise ; and it must be estranged
from that before ever it can come to couple and join with God. When the
soul apprehends what separates it from God, and conceives as it should do
of that, then it will be the readier to apprehend God ; and then all duties
will come off easily. Therefore let us iirst of all work upon our own souls
to be humbled, and by all the helps that can bo.

4. And to help it, consider now at this time hoio uncertain our life is.
We know not who may be stricken next. And consider what the dangerous
issue is, if we humble not ourselves here before God humble us in our
graves. Let us help humiliation by all that may be ; for where this is,
all will follow easily. A man will go out of himself to God when he is
abased in himself, and sees no comfort in heaven or earth but in God ;
that there is nothing to be stuck to in the world, but all is vanity, and he
may be stripped of life and of all these comforts ere long. When a man
is abased, faith and obedience will come off easily. What is the reason
that Christ is not relished more, and that many fall off? They were never
deeply humbled. According to the depth of humiliation is the growth of
holmess of life and the height of faith. All graces rise higher as the soul
is more deeply humbled. The more we descend deeply in digging and
rending up our hearts, the more the word of God sinks into the ' good
ground' that suffers the plough to rend it up and to cut off the weeds.
The more deeply we are humbled, the more the fruits of God's word
appear in our hearts and lives, the more fruitful is our conversation. All

THE CHUECH's complaint AND CONFIDENCE. 187

comes indeed upon the truth of our humiliation ; and when that is not
deep and true, all the rest is shallow and counterfeit. There[fore] we
should work it upon our own hearts.

5. And labour to he humble and low in all the potvers of our souls ; to
have humble judgments, to think of ourselves as God thinks of us. God
thinks of us as sinners ; God and Christ think of us that we are such as
must deny all in us before we be fit for heaven. Let us judge of ourselves
as he that must be our judge doth and will judge of us ere long. Labour
to have low judgments of ourselves ; what we are in ourselves, empty of
all good, defiled with all ill.

And this will breed poverty of spirit in our judgments. Then let us
labour for humility in our aflections ; to bring ourselves more to God ; to
stoop to him in fear and reverence ; and humilit}' in our obedience and
conversation to God and to men every way. Let humility spread itself over
all the parts and powers of the soul and body, and over om* whole lives.
I cannot stand further upon that.

Now, here is verbal humiliation, that is, by confession, expressing our
humiliation by our words ; as the people of God do here by confession,
laying open our sins that God may cover them. "What we hide God will
never cm-e ; therefore we should take heed that now we are to deal with
God, we lay open the bottom of our souls to him ; let not the iron be
in the wound. You know a chirurgeon can heal nothing if the iron or
poisoned arrow stick there. If there be corruption in the stomach, it
must up. If it be ill-gotten goods, it will not digest, up it must all to
God. For men, except there be scruples that a man cannot free his con-
science, there is no necessity, though great conveniency ; but between
God and thy soul open all by confession, and give not over till thou hast
brought pardon to thy heart of that sin thou hast confessed. Every slight
confession is not enough, but it must be a resolved, downright confession,
without guile of spirit, as it is in Ps. xxxii. 4. This is the course that
David takes there. Until he dealt roundly with his soul, without guile,
' his moisture was as the drought of summer.' He was in some dangerous
disease that could not be cured. And do we look to be preserved from
falling into sickness ? or if we be sick, to be cured ? We must begin the
cure in our souls ; lay open the wound to God : ' I said, I will confess my
sin, and thou forgavest me.' He begins with confession. So all persons
that either fear or are under any judgment, let them begin with laying
open their souls to God. When the soul is healed, he will heal the body
presently after, for he lays sickness upon the body for the soul ; and when
the wound is healed, the plaster will fall off of itself. Therefore let us lay
open our sins by confession, and shame our souls all that we can.

This is the way to give glory to God. Let us join both together, our
own ease and glory to God. When w-e have laid open our souls to God,
and laid as much against ourselves as the devil could do that way — for let
us think what the devil would lay to our charge at the hour of death and
the day of judgment, he would lay hard to our charge this and that — let
us accuse ourselves as he would, and as he will ere long. The more we
accuse and judge ourselves, and set up a tribunal in our hearts, certainly
there will follow an incredible ease. Jonah was cast into the sea, and
there was ease in the ship ; Achan was stoned, and the plague was stayed.
Out with Jonah, out with Achan, and there will follow ease and quiet in
the soul presently ; conscience will receive wonderful ease. It must needs
be so, for when God is honoured conscience is purified. God is honoured

188 THE chukch's complaint and confidence.

by confession of sin every way. It honours his omniscience ; that he is
all-seeing, that he sees our sins and searcheth the hearts. Our secrets are
not hid from him. It honours his power. What makes us confess our
sins, but that we are afraid of his power, lest he should execute it ? And
what makes us confess our sins, but that we know there is ' mercy with
him that he may be feared,' Ps. cxxx. 4, and that there is pardon for sin ?
We would not confess our sins else. With men it is confess and have
execution, but with God confess and have mercy. It is his own protesta-
tion. We should never lay open our sins but for mercy. So it honours
God ; and when he is honoured, he honours the soul with inward peace
and tranquillity. We can never have peace in our souls till we have dealt
roundly with our sins, and favour them not a whit ; till we have ripened
our confession to be a thorough confession. What is the difference between
a Christian and another man ? Another person slubbers over his sins ;
God is merciful, &c. ; and he thinks if he come to the congregation, and
follow the minister, it will serve the turn. But a Christian knows that
religion is another manner of matter, another kind of work than so. He
must deal thoroughly and seriously, and lay open his sin as the chief
enemy in the world, and labour to raise all the hatred he can against it,
and make it the object of his bitter displeasure, as being that that hath
done him more hurt than all the world besides ; and so he confesseth it
with all the aggravations of hatred and envy that he can.

But to come more particularly to the confession here spoken of: 'We
all are as an unclean thing,' &c.

' We all.'

We see here holy men themselves confess their sins, and rank themselves
among sinners in their confessions. So we learn hence this,

That we in our confessions (in ottr fastinys especially) ought to ranh our-
selves among the rest of sinners, and not to exempt ourselves from other
sinners. Perhaps we are not guilty of some sins that they have been guilty
of. God hath been merciful to us and kept us in obedience in some things.
But, alas ! there is none of us all but we have had a hand in the sins of
the times. The best of all conditions are guilty of them. Therefore we
have cause to rank ourselves among others, as he saith here, ' We are all as
an unclean thing ; ' and as Daniel, he makes a confession of the sins of all,
' we are all of us guilty.'

How are we all guilty ?

(1.) We are all guilty in this respect, tve receive some taint and soil from
the times we live in. Either our zeal is weakened ; we do not grieve so
much for the sins of the times ; and who is not guilty in this respect ?
We do not grieve and lament as we should ; as St Paul tells the Corinthians,
they should have been sorry and humbled, 1 Cor. v. 6. They were guilty
of the sin of the incestuous person, because they were not humbled for it.
We are thus far guilty at least, the best of us, that we do not sorrow for
the common sins. Alas ! how many sins are there that everybody may
see in the times in all ranks ! In pastors, what unfaithfulness, and in
governors and in places of justice ; what crying of the poor and men
oppressed ; and in all ranks of people we see a general security ; we see
filthiness and hear oaths, ' for which the land mourns,' as Jeremiah saith,
Jer. xxiii. 10. These and such like sins provoke God and solicit the ven-
geance of God ; and will have no nay till they have pulled down vengeance.
Who hath been so much humbled for these sins as he ought ? Perhaps
ourselves are not personally guilty of them. But are they not our sins, so

1 THE church's complaint AND CONFIDENCE. 189

far as we are not abased for them, and oppose them, and repress them as
we should in our places and standings, whether we be ministers or magis-
trates ? Thus far we are guilty all. Therefore the prophet might well say,
* We all are as an unclean thing,' &c.

(2.) Then again, there is great si/mpath>/ in the hearts of good men. They
are full of pity and compassion ; and therefore they join themselves with
others, partly knowing that they are guilty in some degree with others, and
partly because they are members of the same body politic and ecclesiastical.
They live in the same church and commonwealth. Therefore all join their
confession together. ' We all are as an unclean thing,' &c.

Use. Let us make this use of it, every one of iis to be humbled. Do not
every one of us bring sticks to the common fire ? Do we not add some-
thing to the common judgment ? If there be two malefactors that have
committed a trespass, one of them is taken and used in his kind ; he is
executed. Will it not grieve the other ? He will think, was it not my
case ? I was a wretched sinner as well as he. If there be divers traitors,
and the king is merciful to one, and the other he executes, will it not grieve
him that is spared, if he have any bowels of good nature, besides good-
ness in other kinds? Will he not think, it was my own case? There was
no difference between me and them, only the mercy of the king ? So the
best of us may think, have I not a corrupt nature, and for the sins of the
times, am not I soiled with them ? Others have been stricken; might not
the same arrow have stricken me ? Certainly this consideration, that we
bring something to the public sins, it will make us humbled for the public,
as the church here confesseth, * We are all as an unclean thing,' &c.
To come to the particulars of the confession.
' We are all as an unclean thing.'

Here is a confession of their persons. Their persons were tainted. We
are all a tainted seed and generation in nature. What the wickedest is
wholly, the best are in part. Therefore it is no error that we should say
so and so of ourselves in our confessions ; as Saint Paul saith of himself,
* I am sold under sin,' Rom. vii. 14. One would wonder that he should
confess so. Alas ! blessed man, he felt that in part that others in the
state of nature are wholly. So we are all filthy. The best, as far as they
are not renewed, are as other men are.
' Unclean.'

It is a comparison taken from the leprosy, or some other contagious
disease. Those that were tainted of them were separated from the con-
gregation seven days, or some set time. So it is with sin, especially the
sins of this people. They had sinned grievously, and were severed from
their land ; not seven days, but seventy years, the leprosy and filthiness of
their sins and lives was such.

Indeed, sin, especially the sin of nature, it is a leprosy, contagious, pesti-
lential ; and as a leprosy it spreads over all the parts and powers of body
and soul. Take a man that is not changed ; he hath a leprous eye, full of
adultery ; he hath a leprous, uncircumcised ear. Ask him how he judgeth
of discourses and sermons. He relisheth nothing but that which is frothy
and vain. Plain, substantial, solid discourses, either in hearing or read-
ing, will not down with him. He hath a leprous judgment. His eyes, and
ears, and tongue are defiled and corrupt. He is vile and abominable in his
speeches. He is uncircumcised in all. All are unclean. All his powers
are defiled by nature.

All the washings in the law did signify this, the corruption and defile-

190 THE chukch's complaint and confidence.

ment of our natures, which needs another washing which they typified, a
washing by the blood and Spirit of Christ. ' Christ came by water and
blood,' 1 Johnv. 6, both in justification and sanctification. ' There is a
fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in,' Zech. xiii. 1. All
those washings shewed a defilement spiritually, that needed a spiritual
washing. This sin is a leprous, contagious sin ; therefore by nature we
may all cry as the leper, * Unclean, unclean.' The best of us may take up
that complaint as far as we are not renewed. A leprous man defiled the
things that he touched. So it is with sin, till it be forgiven ; ' we defile
everything. A proud man, especially when he is set out in his bravery,
he thinks himself a jolly man, a brave creature. Alas ! he is a filthy
creature ; not only in himself, but in everything he puts his hand unto.
He taints and defiles everything, even civil actions. He sins in eating and
drinking ; not that they in the substance of them are sins, but he stains
everything ; for he forgets God in them ; he forgets himself exceedingly ;
and he returns not thanks to God. So in moral, civil actions, much more
in religious. He defiles himself in everything. He is defiled to all things,
and all things are defiled to him. This is our state by nature, * We are
all as an unclean thing.'

Use. This should enforce a necesnty of cleansing ourselves in the hlood of
Christ ; that is, in the death °of Christ, who hath satisfied the justice of God.
Our natures are so foul in regard of the guilt and stain, that the blood of
God-man, that is, the satisfactory * death of God-man, was necessary to
breed reconciliation and atonement between God and us. ' And the blood
of Christ, which by the eternal Spirit offered himself, must purge our con-
sciences,' &c., Heb. ix. 14. Our consciences will not otherwise be pacified
and cleansed in regard of guilt, but will clamour and cry still, much less
will God be appeased. Neither God nor conscience will be pacified, but
by the blood of him who by the eternal Spirit ofi'ered up himself ; and then
it will in regard of the guilt and stain, then God and conscience will both
be appeased. Therefore in Zech. xiii. 1, ' There is a fountain opened for
Judah and Jerusalem to wash in.' And * The blood of Christ cleanseth us
from all sin,' 1 John i. 7. Blood is of a defiling nature ; but the blood of
Christ cleanseth because it is a satisfactory blood. He died, and was a
sacrifice as a public person for us all.

Then again, considering that we are all defiled, besides this cleansing
from the guilt of sin, let us get our natures cleansed by the Spirit of Christ
more and more. We are all defiled.

Use. And take heed of those that are defiled ; take heed of sinners. Who
would willingly He with a leprous person ? Yet notwithstanding, for matter of
marriage and intimate society there is a littlef conscience made ; men con-
verse with leprous company, they join in the most intimate society with
those that are leprous in their judgments. The life of nature we know,
and are careful to avoid what may impair it ; but it is a sign 'we have not
the life of grace begun in us, because we do not value it. If we had, we
would be more careful to preserve it, and to take heed of contagious com-
pany. Who would go to the pest-house, or to one that hath ' Lord, have
mercy upon us ' on the door ? (a) None but a madman. He might do so.
And surely those that join with swearers and drunkards and filthy persons,
and go to filthy places and houses (as many do, the more shame for them),
they think they have no souls nor no account to make, they go to these
places and infect themselves. It is a sign they have no life of grace ; all
* That is, = satisfaction-giving. — G. t Qu. ' little ' ? — En.

THE CHUKCH's complaint AND CONFIDENCE. 191

companies are alike to them. Is this strength of grace ? No. They have
no life of grace, they have nothing to lose ; for if they had the life of grace,
they would preserve it better.

Sin is a filthy thing, more filthy than the leprosy, nay, than the plague
itself ; for the plague or leprosy makes but the body loathsome, but the sin
that we cherish and are loath to hear of makes the soul loathsome. The
one makes unfit for the company of men ; but the other, sin and corruption
and lusts, unfit us for the kingdom of God, for heaven, for life or death.
Therefore it is woi'se. The leprosy of the body makes a man not a whit
odious to God ; but the leprosy of the soul makes us hateful to him. We
may have more intimate communion with God in the plague than out
of the plague, because God supplies the want of outward comforts ; but
in sin we can have no comfortable communion and society with God.
Therefore this plague of the soul is many ways worse than the pestilence.
But we want faith. God hath not opened our eyes to see that that we shall
see and know ere long, and it is happy if we consider it in time.

To conclude this point concerning the corruption of nature. Take
David's course, Ps. li. 1, seq. When sinful actions come from us, or
unsavoury words, or beastly thoughts, or unchaste and noisome desires
that grieve the Spirit of God, let us go to the fountain. Alas ! my nature
is leprous as far as it is not purged. * I was conceived in sin, my mother
brought me forth in iniquity.' The more we take occasion every day to
see and observe the corruption of our nature, the less it is, and we cannot
better take occasion than upon every actual sin to run to the fountain, the
filthy puddle from whence all comes, and be more humble for that than
for particular sins. It is a mistake in men ; they are ashamed of an action
of injustice, &c., but they should go to their nature and think I have a false,
unclean nature, whereby I am ready to commit a thousand such if God
should let me alone. I have the spawn of all sin as far as the Spirit hath
not subdued it. It is a defect of judgment to be more humbled for parti-
cular sins. Nature is more tainted than any action. That sowing, breeding
sin, as the apostle saith, it is worse than the action, it breeds the rest. So
much for that. They confess here, ' We are all as an unclean thing ' in
ourselves.

But what comes from us ?

That that aggravates to the utmost a sinful state.

' All our righteousness is as filthy rags.'

He doth not say we have filthy actions, but our best actions are stained ;
and not one, but all. Mark how strong the place is, ' we all,' the people
of God. He includes all, as Daniel saith, ' I confess my sins, and the sins
of my people.' And there is no man in the church but he might have this
confession in his mouth, ' we,' the people of God, and ' all we ;' in all our
actions, ' all our righteousness,' &c. So all the actions of all the right-
eous, the best actions of the best men, and all the best actions of the best
men are defiled and stained. It is as great an aggravation as may be.

Some would have it to intend the legal righteousness, yet notwithstanding
it is true of all. And when we now humble ourselves, it is good to think
of all. So we may say, ' All our righteousness.' Whatsoever comes from
us it is stained and defiled. As for their legal performances, there is no
question of them ; for, alas ! they trusted too much to them. In Isaiah i. and
Isaiah last, they thought God was beholding to them for them : ' Away with
them, away with your new moons,' &c. They were abominable to God

192 THE church's complaint and confidence.

as ' the cutting ofi' a clog's neck,' as it is Isaiah the last, Isa Ixvi. 3. So
all their righteousness, their ceremonial performances, were abominable.

But I say we may i"aise it higher. It is not only true of them, but in
greater matters, in our best moral performances, they are all as tainted
rags.

Obj. How can this be ? It is strange it should be so. The papists cry
out here that we discourage men from good works. If all our righteousness
be as filthy rags, why should we perform good works ?

Ans. Put case a man be sick, all the meat he eats it strengthens his
sickness, shall he therefore not eat at all ? Yes. He must eat somewhat.
There is nature in him to strengthen as well as his disease. Thy best per-
formances are stained ; wilt thou do none therefore ? Yes. Though they
be stained, yet there is some goodness in them. Thou mayest honour God,
and do good to others. Besides the ill there is good. There is gold in the
ore. There is some good in every good action. Nay, there is so much
good as that God pardons the ill, and accepts the good. So though our
good actions be ill, yet for their kind, and matter, and stuff, they are good,
they are commanded of God. For their original and spring they are wrought
by the Spirit of God ; for the person, the workman, it is one in the state of
grace ; and for acceptance God rewards them. But it is another thing
when we come before God to humble ourselves. Then we must see what
stains and sins are in them. There is no good action so good, but there
are wants and weaknesses, and stains and blemishes in it as it comes from
us. The Spirit of God indeed is effectual to stir us up to good actions ;
but we hinder the work of the Holy Ghost, and do not do them so thoroughly
as we should. Therefore, besides our wants and weaknesses, there is a
tainture of them. Either we have false aims, they are not so direct, or
our resolutions are not so strong. False aims creep in for a while, though
we do not allow them ; and then there are some coolers of our devotion.
Our love is cold, our hatred of sin is not so strong, our prayers are not so
fervent, our actions are not so carried without interruption, but are hindered
with many by-thoughts. Who cannot complain of these things ? Who is
not brought upon his knees for the weakness of his best actions ? Nay, I
say more, a Christian is more humbled for the imperfections and stains of
his best actions, than a civil* carnal person is for his outward enormities ;
for he turns over all his outward delinquencies, and makes the matter but a
trick of youth ; when a poor Christian is abased for his dulness, and dead-
ness, and coldness, for false aims that creep into his actions, for interruptions
in his duties, that his thoughts will not sufier him to serve God with that
intentionf that he would, but puts him ofi' with motions and suggestions
and temptations in his best performances ; ihis abaseth him more than
outward gross sins doth a carnal person. When we deal with God, ' our
righteousness it is as menstruous cloths,' Isa. xxx. 22.

Know this for a ground, that there is a double principle in a Christian
in all things that he doth. There is flesh and spirit ; and these two issue
out in whatsoever comes from him. In his good words, there is flesh as
well as spirit ; in his thoughts and desires ; in his prayer, his prayer itself
stands in contraries. So everything that comes from him it is tainted with
that that is contrary. The flesh opposeth and hinders the work of the
Spirit, and so it stains our good works. Therefore contraries are true of
a Christian, which seem strange to another man. A Christian at the same
time is deformed and well-favoured. ' He is black and comely.' ' I am

* That is, ' merely moral.' — G. t That is, ' intentness.' — Ed,

THE church's complaint AND CONFIDENCE. 193

Dlacli but 3'et well-favoured,' saitli the spouse, Cant, i, 5 ; black in regard
of sin, but well-favoured in regard of the Spirit of God and the acceptation
of Christ. He is a saint and a sinner : a sinner in respect that sin hath
spread over all parts, and a saint in respect of Christ's acceptance. ' My
love and my dove.' Christ makes love to his church as if she had no
defilement ; but he looks on her better part ; he looks on her as she is in
his love, and as he means to bring her after. But the church looking upon
herself as she is in herself, she is much abased. The ground of it is the
imperfection of sanctification in this world. The best of our works are * as
menstruous cloths,' When we think of the corruption of the best things
as they come from us, when we come to humble ourselves before God, we
must down with proud styles and pharisaical thoughts, although there be
somewhat that is good. Yet let us think of all the ill that may abase us.

There is a season for every thing, when we are tempted to be overcome
by Satan. Then think of the good, as Job when he was tempted. ' I
have done this and this ; you cannot take away mine innocency,' Job
xxxiii. 9. In false temptations from the world and Satan, then stand upon
our innocenc3\ But when we humble ourselves before God — ' Alas ! I am
dust and ashes,' ' I abhor myself,' as Job and Abraham said. Gen. xviii. 27,
Job xlii. G — lay all proud apprehensions of ourselves aside ; and all good
works, especially in one kind, in matter of justification, ' all is dung in
comparison of Christ,' Philip, iii. 8. All must be sold for the pearl, the
righteousness of Christ. There is no reckoning must be had of good works
by way of merit in justification and our title to heaven. What gives us
title to heaven and frees us from hell ? The death of Christ, the obedi-
ence and satisfaction of Christ. God by it hath redeemed us perfectly
without anything in ourselves, and accepts us to life everlasting only by the
righteousness of Christ. Therefore it is called God's righteousness, because
it was done by Christ, it was wrought by God. Our righteousness is as * a
menstruous cloth.' It is spotted and stained and defiled. It will not do
the deed. It will not satisfy conscience, much less the exact piercing
judgment of God. That is the righteousness that must stay our souls in
life and death, and we must oppose it to all temptations, as a satisfying
thing that will set down conscience to be quiet. It must be righteousness
of God-man ; nothing else will do it. ' All our righteousness is as filthy
rags.' That is the confession of their sinful actions.

The next thing he confesseth is senselessness. ' There is none that calls
upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.' There be
other words betv/een concerning the complaint of their miserable estate ; but
I will handle them that concern their sins first.

' There is none that calls upon thy name.'

In a word, he means that none worshipped him ; because prayer is put
for the whole worship of God, as indeed it may well be put for the whole,
for it exerciseth all the graces of the Spirit. What one grace is not set on
work in prayer ? It is put for all the inward worship of God. If it be
faith, prayer is the flame of faith. When there is faith in the heart there
will be prayer in the mouth. The knowledge of God : prayer is grounded
upon a promise. So it comes from that part of spiritual worship. Hope :
hope makes a man pray. No man would pour out his supplications but to
him that ho hath hope in. And for love : God's love and mercy draws us
into his presence ; and joy and delight in the presence of God draws us to
pray. We give God the honour of all his attributes in prayer ; of his truth,

VOL. VI. N

194 THE church's COMPL.UNT AND CONFIDENCE.

of his goodness, of bis mercy, of his presence everywhere, Ac. So it sets
all graces on work, and gives God the honour of all. It is the worship of
God every way ; for though it be an outward verbal worship of itself, yet
it expresseth the w^orship of God inward. It gives God the honour of all.
Therefore, those that pray not, what kind of persons are they ? Wretched
persons. The sickness is now among us. If a man should ask now. What
family is likeliest to have the vengeance of God on it ? — though I speak
not to censure those that have it, but I speak in God's ordinary course —
surely those that do not exercise the duty of prayer. ' Pour out thy wrath
upon those that call not upon thy name,' Ps. Ixxix. 6. Those families that
call not upon God humbly morning and evening, or that person that doth
not morning and evening reverently call upon God, they are fit objects for
the vengeance of God, for the plague or the like. ' Pour out thy wrath
upon the femilies and persons that call not upon thy name,' insinuating
that the Lord will spare us if we do call upon his name and humble our-
selves. If thou wilt needs pour out thy vengeance, let it be on them that
have not grace humbly to call upon thy name. Let us make conscience of
this duty, except we will prove atheists, and lie open to all the vengeance
of God.

' There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.'
He represents God to us as a great person, that would bestow some
benefits, and is ready to turn away himself; yet none lays hold of him or
desires him to stay. So, saith he, there is none that lays hold on God, to
keep him that he should not go away. Therefore, when he saith, ' None
calls upon thy name, or stirs up himself to take hold of thee,' he means
there are none that pray earnestly. Incense was to be burnt, or else it
cast no sweet smell. Our prayers must have fire and zeal in them. Our
prayers must be cries that must pierce heaven. ' Out of the deep have I
cried unto thee. Lord,' Ps. cxxx. 1. We must stir up ourselves ; we must
waken ourselves to waken God. Indeed, before we can waken God we
must waken ourselves.

' There is none stirreth up himself to taJ,-c hold of thee.''
Insinuating that if we would lay hold of God he will be stayed. To speak
a little more particularly of this. God is so gracious that he will be stayed
even hj prayer. The way to stay God in his judgments, and to lay hold
of him and keep him among us, it is prayer. Let us take notice now of
the hand of God upon us ; what is the means to stop his hand, that he
come not among us with his public judgments ? It is prayer. The way
to stop God, and the angel that hath his sword now drawn over our heads,
it is prayer. God so condescends that he will be stopped by prayer ; as
we see in Exod. xxxii. 10. He saith to Moses, ' Let me alone.' Moses
prayed, and alleged arguments to God that he should not confound his
people. ' Let me alone,' saith he, insinuating that prayer binds God's
hands. So powerful is prayer, that it binds the Almighty. It makes the
Omnipotent in some sort impotent. He cannot do that he would, he can-
not execute his wrath ; prayer binds him. When a company of Christians
lay hold on him by prayer, he cannot do that he threateneth. The only
way to lay hold of God is by prayer. In Ezek. xiii. 5, there is a complaint
that ' none stood in the gap,' insinuating that if any had stood in the gap
when the vengeance of God was coming abroad, they might have prevented
the wrath. The way to stand in the gap and to keep God is to pray, and
to pray heartily.

I THE church's complaint AND CONFIDENCE. 105

Now that God may be held by our prayers, they must be strong prayers.
Every prayer will not hold God. They must be strong prayers that must
bind such a Sampson that hath his strength. Therefore there must be a
stirring up of ourselves. He saith here, ' There is none that stirreth up
himself to take hold of thee.' So it is the duty of Christians to stir up
themselves in these times.

Quest. How shall we stir up ourselves ?

Ans. 1. First, Bij comiderinri the danger ice are in. Danger felt or
feared, it will make a man lay hold. When a child feels the smart of the
rod, he lays hold upon his father or his mother's hand. Strike no more !
When the children of God feel the smart of his judgments, then they cry,
' Oh no more !' The cry of the child prevails with the mother, though it
cannot speak ofttimes. '^So when in the sense of sin and misery we cry to
God, we move his bowels with crying. There is no question but the serious
apprehension of danger felt doth awaken the soul and stir it up. ^ It is so
also in danger feared. A danger feared, with belief, will work as if it were
present ; for a man that hath a spirit of faith to see that unless God be
appeased with good courses, he will punish, as surely as if the judgment
were upon him. Faith makes things present, both good and ill ; and it
makes a man sensible of things that are not yet upon him. This is the
difference between a Christian and another man. Another man ' puts the
evil day far off from him ;' but a believing Christian, by a spirit of faith,
sees God, except he be turned away by hearty and humble repentance,
ready to seize upon him ; and so he walks humbly in all his courses. So
that danger felt or feared by a spirit of faith awakens and stirs up the soul
to lay hold on God.

Therefore in spiritual dangers we should especially waken our souls to
see in what need we stand of Christ and the pardoning mercy of God in
Christ, that we may waken him and give him no rest till we find peace in
our consciences.

2. Then again, that that we may stir up ourselves withal, is meditation
of the necessity and excellency of grace, and of the good things tve heg. The
serious consideration of that will make us stir up ourselves to lay hold on
God, and give him no rest till we have it. When a man thinks the ' loving-
kindness of God is better than life,' Ps. Ixiii. 3, and if I have not that, my
life is nothing to me. It is not only better than corn and wine and oil, but
than life itself. Pardon of sin, and a heart to do good, is better than_ life
itself, than anything in the world. If one should ofier such a man this, a
heart patiently to bear ill, and large to do good, and strength against tempta-
tions, he would rather have this gracious disposition than anything in the
world ; he had rather have the pardon of sin with the sense of God's favour
than anything in the world. This will stir up a man, as we see in David,
Ps. li. 1, scq., ' Mercy, mercy;' it binds God and lays hold on him, together
with pardoning mercy, to have a heart enlarged with spiritual joy. There
is nothing spiritual, but it is so excellent, that if we had the eyes of our
spirits awakened to see them, we would bind God and lay hold of him. He
should not go further till he had shined on us.

3. Therefore let us offer violence to God this loay ; never give him rest till
we oUain. You see when the two disciples were going to Emmaus, Christ
made as though he would have gone further, but they ' compelled' him,
Luke xxiv. 29. Now there is a semblance as if God threatened war, and
would take away the gospel. There are dangers toward. When God
makes such a semblance, let us lay hold on him ; let him go no further.

196 THE chukch's complaint and confidence.

Lord, night approaclieth and affliction approacheth. Lord, stay ; thou shalt
go no further. Let us stop God with importunity. The consideration of
danger, and the necessity and excellency of the things we beg, will make us
lay hold on God.

There is an hypocrisy among men, among a company of formalists, that
are the bane of the times, that God will spue out. They are as ill as a pro-
fane person in his nostrils. They think that all devotion is in prostrating
themselves, which is good, and more than profane men will do, and yield
a dead sacrifice to God. They will come and hear, and yield the outward
act in outward humiliation. Is this to rouse thyself? Outward things are
never current but when they express outwardly the inward truth. There-
fore take another course, man ; God cares not for the dead, empty carcase
thou bringest him. Work upon thine own heart by meditation of the
danger thou art in, and of the excellency of the things thou art to beg, and
meditate of the majesty of God whom thou appearest before, of his good-
ness and truth, &c. Affect thy heart deeply with these apprehensions ; let
these serious thoughts draw outward expressions of humiliation. And then
it is excellent when the outward expression follows the inward impression ;
when there is somewhat inward that shews itself outward ; when we stir up
ourselves, and not to think that all devotion consists in a comely, outward
carriage — which is commendable of itself — but because men usually rest in
it, it is prejudicial to their soul's good. We must offer a reasonable sacri-
fice to God ; we must love him in our hearts ; we must work upon our
hearts and carry ourselves so in our inward man, as that we may stir up
our whole man and awaken our souls: * Praise the Lord, my soul, and
all that is within me, praise his holy name,' Ps. ciii. 1. "We should stir up
ourselves by speaking to our own souls, that wo may waken and take hold
of God.

4. This again will help it, A man should never come to pray, but he should
have an ansicer be/ore he hath done, either at that time or another. Never
give over till thou hast an answer. This will make us stir up ourselves
indeed. How do you know a prayer from a formal lip-labour ? A man
that prays conscionably* marks what he doth, and expects a return, as a
man that soweth his seed. He that doth a thing with hope of issue will do
it throughly. Therefore never pray to perform an empty duty to God ;
but mark what you pray for, if it be forgiveness of sins, or for grace, or
protection, &c., and do it with that earnestness that you may hope for an
issue answerable ; and this going about it will make us do it to purpose.
Do we think to serve God with the deed done ? God hath appointed prayer
for our good, and to convey blessings to us. Let us pray so as we may
expect a blessing by it. Now that prayer that expects a blessing to bo con-
veyed, it will be a prayer to purpose. It will make a man stir up himself.

* There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.'

The complaint of this holy man of God may be taken up at this time of
many of us now. How few are those that rouse and stir up themselves,
but put off God with an empty compliment ! Nay, in these times of danger,
have ye not a company of idle persons that will not vouchsafe to hear the
word, nor to come and humble themselves, but walk and talk oflensively, as
if they would dare God ; or if they come here, they come not with a reso-
lution to hear the issue of their prayers, to rouse up themselves ' to lay
hold on God.' Because, as there is a great deal of atheism in regard of
God, so there is much dead flesh in regard of men. Who is so pitiful of
* Tliat is, ' conscientiously.' — G.

I THE church's complaint AND CONFIDENCE. 197

our brethren round about as be ought? We bad need to stir up ourselves.
The danger is present. We are beset round about, yet who is stirred up
to earnest prayer ? We want bowels of compassion. Those that have
hearts compassionate, it is a sign that God intends good to them. But of
the most we may take up this complaint, we are dead-hearted in regard
of our sins against God, and in regard of the contagion among us. A
man may see it by men's discourses. There is inquiry how the sickness
spreads ? how many dies ? But men do not labour with God to make
their accounts even with him ; nor we are not compassionate to men : for
that would be a means to stir and to rouse us up ' to lay hold of God,' to
stay his hand out of love and pity and compassion to our brethren which
are our flesh, though it should never seize on us. I say, I fear this com-
plaint is too justly on many of us. I beseech you, let us labour to amend
it as we tender* our own salvation — perhaps that we do not regard so much,
we shall ere long, but then — as we tender the health of our bodies, which
we prefer before our souls, let us bumble ourselves more than ordinary now.

Some devils are not driven out but by prayer and fasting. Mat. xvii. 21.
So some judgments, they will not away without prayer and fasting ; not
only public, but private fasting and prayer. Sometimes there must be
more than ordinary humiliation for some sins ; for some kind of tempta-
tions there must be prayer and fasting ; for some maladies prayer and
fasting, and more than ordinary stirring and rousing up of ourselves to lay
hold upon God. God will not be held with ordinary humiliation. That
will not do it ; but there must be a resolution against, and a hatred of all
sin, and to please God in all things. We must do it with extraordinary
humiliation now, because the judgment is extraordinary. There is ordinary
humiliation and extraordinary : as there are ordinary feasts and extra-
ordinary, so there is ordinary' humiliation for daily trespasses ; but in extra-
ordinary judgments, extraordinary fasting and humiliation. As there is
ordinary washing daily, but there is washing and scouring at good times.
God calls for extraordinary humiliation now ; not only prayers, but stirring
and rousing up of ourselves. We should apprehend the danger as seizing
on ourselves. This night it may seize upon us, for aught we know. It
should affect us and make us stir up ourselves. This is the way to hold
God by pra3'er; and if we hold him, he will hold the destroying angel. He
hath all creatures at his command. Thus you see how we should confess
the sins of our persons, the sins of our good actions, our want of calling
upon God. 'There is none that calls upon thy name, that stirs up himself
to take hold of thee.' Thus far proceed the branches of their sinful dis-
position in those times.

Now he complains likewise of the judgments of God.

' We all fade as a leaf; our iniquities, as the wind, have taken us away.
Thou hast hid thy face, and we are consumed because of our iniquities.'

The complaint hath these four branches ; a little of each.

' We all fade as a leaf.'

Wicked men are ' as leaves ; ' and worse, they are ' as chaff.' Godly men,
because they have a consistence, and are rooted in Christ, and set in a good
soil, they are ' trees of righteousness.' But godly men in the state of their
nature, and in regard of this life, they are as leaves. Wicked men are as
leaves every way, and as ' chaff which the wind blowetb away,' as we shall
see afterwards.

* That is, = ' care for.'— G.

198 THE CHUKCU'S COMPLAINT AND CONFIDENCE.

•

' We all fade as a leaf.'

1. He means, first, iii regard of ceremonial 2)crformances that xvere without
vigour ami spirit of true devotion. There was no spirit in their legal perfor-
mances. They were dead empty things. Therefore when judgment came
they were as leaves. So an idle careless hearer, when judgment comes,
all is as leaves. When conscience nips him, as his atheistical heart will
do ere long, then he is as a leaf, all fades away. The Jews, when they
were in trouble, all their legal performances faded, they were all as a leaf.

2. So it is true in regard of mortaUttj, the vanity of health and strength.
We all as a leaf ftide away when God's judgments come to nip us. Men
are as leaves ; as the leaves now in autumn fall, and there is a new gene-
ration in the spring ; and then they fall away, and a new generation comes
again ; so it is with men : some are blown ofi", and some come on again.
' We all fade as a leaf.' Not to be large in the point, at this time we are
all as leaves. In this city now, there is a kind of wind that nips a world
of men, many hundreds in the head.'" It is an autumn wind that nips the
leaves. Our autumn wind with us is before the time — a kind of autumn
wind in the spring, in summer, that nips the leaves and takes away the
vigour of health.

- 3. And so, as I said, /or all idle performances, that have not a foundation
in substantial 2>i^ty, they are all as leaves. When trouble of conscience
comes, they are as Adam's fig-leaves. When God comes to search and
examine, they all fall ofl', both in respect of our performances and in respect
of our lives. We are all as leaves when God comes in judgment. This is
one part of the complaint. ' We are all as leaves.' The like we have of
Moses, the man of God, Ps. xc. 6. Wlien God blows upon us with the
wind of his displeasure, we fall off as leaves.

Then another exjjression is,

' Our iniquities, as the wind, have taken us away.'

As chafi', or things that have no solidity in them, are blown away
with a pufl' of wind, so it is with a man if he be not a Christian, set into
and gathered unto Christ. By the fall we all fell from God, and were
scattered from him. Sin blew the angels out of heaven. It blew Adam
out of paradise ; and now Christ, the ' second Adam,' gathers us to him
again by his word and Spirit, and so we have a solid and eternal being in
him. But out of Christ, our iniquities, as a wind, and God's judgments,
blow us all away first or last. Wicked men settle on their dregs a great
while, but when God's judgment comes, it blows them in this world to
this part and that part ofttimes, when it pleaseth him to exercise his out-
ward judgments. But if he do not blow them aw^ay here, he will give them
a blast that shall send them to hell, their centre. Out of Christ there is no
solidity, no consistence or being for any man. Therefore, when God's
judgment comes, it blo^s them away in this M'orld, and at the hour of death
sends them to hell. This is the state of all. ' Our iniquities, like the wind,
take us away.' He means here, they were blown out of Jewry to Babylon.
It was a strong blast that blew them out of their own country.
• May not we say, 'Our iniquities have blown us away?' What hath
blown us from our callings and employments ? Is it not the pestilence ?
And what brings that ? Is it not our iniquities ? So that w^e may all com-
plain of this, ' Our iniquities have blown us away.'

We see here he lays the blame upon their iniquities. Did not the
Babylonians carry them away ? Alas ! they were but God's instruments.

* Qu. ' day ' ?— Ed.

' THE church's complaint AND CONFIDENCE. 199

God was displeased by tlieir sins ; bis wratb blew tbem away. So you
may see here tbe child of God in all judgments looks to his sins. He
justifies God. He murmurs not, and says this and that. No. But, it
was my sins : ' We have sinned against tbe Lord,' Lam. v. 16 ; Micab
vii. 9, * I will bear tbe wrath of tbe Lord, because I have sinned against
bim ;' and Lam. iii. 39, ' Man suiiers for his sins ; ' and every one of us
may say, ' It is our iniquities have taken us away.' A gracious heart
justifies God and condemns itself. The children of God may complain
sometimes of God's band, but they will never censure God's hand. They
justify God alway, though they may complain of the bitterness of bis band.
Here they complain of the bitterness of the judgment. They were blown
into another country, into captivity. They do not complain of God. God
will have us complain; but as he will have us complain, so we must justify
him and condemn ourselves ; just are thy judgments.

An hypocrite thinks God is beholding to bim for his outward perfor-
mances, and when judgments befall him, be frets and censures God. Either
he thinks there is no God, or be frets and fumes against God : he is dis-
contented. But a Christian justifies God, and condemns himself. * Our
iniquities have blown us away.' Our sins keep good things from us.

Use. Therefore, let us now lay tbe blame where it is. Search out our
sins, personal and particular, and complain of tbem. They have a hand
in this plague. God is no tyrant. He delights not to confound his crea-
tures ; but sin makes him out of love with his creatures, the workmanship
of his own hands. It is our sins. Therefore, let us lament the sins of the
times. So far we may without hypocrisy, and ought to take to heart, and
mourn for the sins of the times that wc bear by others and see ourselves,
and mourn for our own hearts that we cannot mourn. We must mourn
for the sins of the times, as Daniel and Nehemiah, and all the blessed men
of God have done. It is not the plague that hurts us. That is but God's
messenger. Sin doth us more barm than all tbe devils in bell and all tbe
plagues in the world. It is not outward evils we need to fear. Let us fear
sin, and lay bold on God. He is the Lord of hosts. He bath all the
creatures at bis command. Let us get sin away, that doth all the mischief.
It is that that makes bate between God and us, and then God makes a
controversy between us and tbe creatures. It is our sins.

And that is tbe reason of tbe necessity of humiliation for our sins, because
sin breeds a separation between God and us, and between the creatures and
us. When God is ofiended, tbe creatures are infected. Let us see our
sins ; by tbem we infect the air : by our vain speeches, and oaths, and our
tilthiness. Our sins infect the air, and that breeds infection in our bodies.
Our sins cry. They have a voice to cry to God, if our prayers do not
outcry tbem. Therefore, let us cry to God to bear the cry of our prayers,
and not of our sins. How many voices have crying sins ! There is tbe
voice of the people oppressed, the voice of filthiness, &c. Sins clamour in
God's ears. They clamour for wages due, ' and the wages of sin is death,'
Rom. vi. 23. Sin cries, though it says nothing in words. It cries in
God's ears, and it will not rest till be bath poured out bis vengeance. Tbe
tilthiness and oaths, and atheism and profaneness, the suffering of tbe
dishonour of his name : these sins of the times are those that pull miseries
upon us. ' Our iniquities have taken us away as the wind.' So much for
that.

' For thou hast bid thy face from us, and we are consumed because of
our iniquities.'

200 THE chukch's complaint and confidence.

Sin makes God hide Lis face from us, and then ' we are consumed,
because of our iniquities.' * We melt away in the hands of our iniquities,'
as the word is (b). Indeed, sin is a cruel tyrant. When God leaves us in
the hand of our sins, he leaves us in a cruel hand. Christ came to redeem
us from our sins. Our sins are they that torment us. It is very signifi-
cant in the original.

' We are melted.' We melt away as wax before the fire, as snow before
the sun, * because of our iniquities,' when God gives up men to be handled
as their own sins will handle them. Nations melt before the hands of sin,
and kings, and kingdoms, and all. Let God give up men to delight in sin,
kingdoms or persons, they melt and moulder away in the hand of their sins.

But to speak a little more of the next words.

' Thou hast hid thy face from us.'

That is, thou hast hid thy comfort from us. God hath a double face :
a face that shines on our souls in peace, and joy, and comfort, when he
saith to the soul, ' I am thy salvation,' Ps. xxxv. 3 ; and his face that shines
on the outward estate, that keeps misery, and sickness, and danger from
us, and bestows good things on us. And God takes away his face from us
in regard of the inward man, v/hen he gives us no peace, but leaves us to
spiritual desertion. In regard of the outward man, God hides his face when
he gives us up to pestilence, and war, and sickness, and miseries in this
life ; when he gives us up to outward desertion.

Sometimes God shines on wicked men in outward things, but he hides
his face for peace of conscience ; and sometimes God's children have his
face shining on their conscience, but he hides his face in respect of outward
things. Sometimes he shines in neither of both : as at this time he neither
shined on these blessed men in outward favours, for they were in captivity,
nor in the sense of his love and favour, for they were in desolation, and
eclipsed every way.

The face of God, it is as the sun to the creatures. When the sun hides
his face, what is there but darkness and night ? What makes the night,
but the absence of the sun ? What makes winter, but the absence of the
Bun, when he grows low, and cannot heat the earth ? So what makes winter
in the soul, deadness, and darkness, and dulness in God's service ? The
absence of the face of God ; God shines not on the soul. What makes
night in the soul, when the soul is benighted with ignorance, that it cannot
see itself, nor see the judgments of God ? God shines not. ' The Sun of
righteousness ' shines not on that soul.

God is the Sun of the creature. He gives life to the creature. What
■will become of the creature, when God neither shines outwardly nor inwardly
on it ? As at the day of judgment, he shall take away outward comforts ; —
there shall be no outward shining ; — and all inward comforts, they shall
have no hope : he shall altogether hide his face. When God, the Fountain
of all good, shall hide his face altogether from the creature, that is hell.
The place where God shines not outwardly with comforts, nor inwardl}',
nor there shall be no hope of neither, but a place of horror and despair,
that is hell, as the hell of this life is when God shines not on our souls.

Now, these holy men they complain, yet they pray : * Thou hast hid thy
face,' Ps. Ixxxix, 4G. Here is the conflict of faith, that sees God hide his
face, and yet will follow God. It sees God ready to turn away himself,
and yet it will lay hold of him, and have a glance of him. It will wrestle
with him, and not let him go without a blessing. So there be degrees of
God's hiding of his face. Though God seem to hide his face, and to with-

' THE CHUKCri's COMPLAINT AND CONFIDENCE. 201

draw outward comforts, and perhaps in some to withdraw his favour from
their hearts inwardly. What shall they do ? Droop ? No. Wrestle with
God as Jacob. See through the cloud that is between God and thy soul.
Break thorough by faith ; and with Job say, ' Though he kill me, yet will
I trust iu him,' Job. xiii. 15. Let us stir up ourselves * to lay hold on God'
when he seems to turn away his face ; and imitate good Jacob, never give
over seeking the face of God.

How shall we seek the face of God ?

1. By jjrayer ; for that brings us to the face of God, though he seem to
hide his face, as Jeremiah complains, Jer. xiv. 8, ' Why art thou as a
stranger ? ' And yet he prays. Seek him by prayer.

2. Seek him in his ordinances. Hear the ^Yord of God. ' Thy face,
Lord, will I seek,' Ps. xxvii. 8. God invites you to seek his face now by
fasting and humihation. Seek his face in this ordinance. Here is the
blessed Trinity, ' Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' Though outwardly God
hide his face iu some regards, yet when he offers outward liberties refuse
them not. He offers his face to us now in Christ. Seek, by prayer and
other means, holy communion with him still ; and never leave seeking till
you have got a glance of him ; and stir up yourselves to lay hold on him,
that he would shew his loving countenance upon you.

Those that turn their backs on God's ordinances, and in rebellion to his
commandments, live in sins against conscience — can they wonder that he
hides his face from them, when they turn their backs on him ? Rebellious
persons, that will not yield meekly to God's ordinances, and submit to his
commandments, do they wonder that God takes good things from them ?
When we sin we turn our backs upon God and our face to the devil, and the
world, and pleasures. When men turn their faces to sin, to pleasures and
vanity, and their backs on God, do they wonder that he suffers them to
melt and pine away ? Let us do as the flowers do, the marigold, &c. They
turn themselves to the sun. Let our souls do so. Let us turn ourselves
to God in meditation and prayers, striving and wrestling with him. Look
to him, eye him in his ordinances and promises ; and have communion
with him all the ways we can. Let our souls open and shut with him.
When he hides his face, let us droop, as the flowers do till the sun come
again. When the waters fall, the flowers droop and hold down their heads.
When the sun riseth the next morning, up they go again, as if there had
been never a shower. So when we have not daily comfort of spirit in
peace of conscience, let us never rest seeking God's face in his ordinances
and by prayer, and that will cheer a drooping soul, as the sunbeams do the
flagging flowers. Then you may know that God's face shines upon you in
some measure, when he gives you means and gives you hearts to use those
means, and comfort in your consciences, that whether you live or die you
are God's. This is a beam of that sunshine on the soul when God vouch-
safes joy and comfort. A little of this will banish all fears. If you have
one glimpse of his countenance, you shall not need to fear the plague, or
war, or death. If he shine on you, one glance will take away all fear.
Paul, when he was in the stocks, one beam of God's countenance made him
sing at midnight. Acts xvi. 25. ' Let thy countenance shine on us, and we
shall be safe,' Ps. Ixxx. 3, let what will become of us outwardly. If God
shine not on us for outward favours, if he shine on our souls and release
them from fears and guilt, and speak peace to them, and say unto them,
' he is their salvation,' Ps. xxxv. 3, and as he saith in the gospel, ' Thy
sins are forgiven thee,' all will be well whatsoever shall become of us.

202 THE church's complaint and confidence.

* Let us seek the Lord while he may be found,' Isa. Iv. 6. Hold him before
he go ; let him not depart. Attend upon the means ; never miss good
means of seeking his face till we have got a sweet answer from heaven that
he is our God.

Now follows the supplication.

' But now, Lord, thou art our Father,' &c.

Here is a praj'er which is a kind of holding God by the relation of a
Father. This is one way of stirring up our souls, to consider the relation
of a father. It stirs up bowels when a child is beaten by his father, '
stay, father, spare.' It works upon the bowels. There is a world of rhe-
toric in this one word ' Father.' Why, Lord, thou art my Father. Shall
I be destroyed ? Let us lay hold on God by this relation that he puts
upon himself; and he will not lay it aside, though we be unworthy to be
sons. He doth not say, Thou art our Father, and we are thy sous ; because
he thought they were unworthy, as the prodigal saith, ' I am unworthy to
be called thy son,' Luke xv. 19 ; but instead of saying we are thy sons, he
saith, ' We are the clay, thou art the potter.' Yet he is a Father conti-
nually ; and though in Christ you cannot call him Father, yet you may by
creation and initiation, being brought up in the church. Go to him with
the encouragements you have, and cast j-ourselves upon him.- There is a
bond for you by creation ; and there is his command. He bids you call
him Father. He is a Father by creation. Look not upon this or that sin,
but go to him and call him Father, as you may call him. Say, Thou art
my Father, thou hast given me a being in the church. Wrestle with him
as you may, though as sound Christians you cannot call him Father. Be
weary of your courses. Are you willing to come under God's hands, to be
sons ? You are sons by creation already. Offer thyself to be of his family
for the time to come, and God will give a sweet report to thy soul. Stand
not out at the stave's end. ' Thou art our Father, Lord.' If you have a
purpose to live in sin, the devil is your father, and not God. ' You are of
your father the devil,' John viii. 44 ; but if we be willing to submit, we may
say, ' Doubtless thou art our Father,' Isa. Ixiii. 16,

' We are the clay, thou art the potter.'

Here is a resignation of themselves to God in this term, ' thou art the
potter, we are the clay.' Indeed, we are but earthen vessels, the best of us,
in regard of the bodily life we have ; and we are at the liberty of God to
dispose of as he pleaseth. So, before he comes to put forth this prayer to
God, he useth this resignation of themselves into the hand of God : we are
as clay in thy hands. Lord, ' dispose of us as thou wilt.' Let us remember
this when we come to pray to God. Use all means of abasement that can
be. Jjaj aside all terms other than abasing terms. ' We are the clay,'
Isa. Ixiv. 8 ; and as Job saith, ' I abhor myself in dust and ashes,' Job
xlii. 6. So the saints have done in all times. * I am not worthy to be
called thy son,' Luke xv. 19 ; and ' I am less than the least of thy mercies,'
Gen. xxxii. 10. Let us lay aside proud and lofty terms, and ' cast down
our crowns' at the foot of Christ, as the saints in Rev. iv. 10, cast down
all our excellencies. Let us have no thought of outward excellencies — of
beauty, or strength, or riches, or high dignity. When we come to God, we
must come with low thoughts to the high God. Can the creature be too
low in his presence ?

And then come with resignation. ' We are the clay, thou art the potter.'
Do with us as thou wilt. If thou dash us in pieces as a potter's vessel,
thou mayest do it. That is the way to escape. That is well committed,

' THE church's COIIPLAINT AND CONFIDENCE. 203

that is committed into God's hand. Some men shift by their wits, and will
not trust God with their health and strength. They ' be double-minded,'
as St James saith, i. 8. They will have two strings to their bow ; if law-
ful means will not serve, unlawful shall. No. But we * must commit our-
selves to God as to a faithful creator,' 1 Pet. iv. 19 ; and then see what he
will do. Then it stands with his honour. ' He will look to the lowly.'
' I am the clay, thou art the potter.' Here I am ; do as thou wilt. As
David saith, it is a blessed estate thus to resign ourselves into God's hands.
If the devil and reprobates could be brought to this, they should never come
there where they are in terrors of conscience. Let us labour to practise
this duty : Lord, I commit to thy hands my body and soul. I cast myself
into thy bosom ; do with me as thou wilt. Some that have stood out at
the stave's end with temptations many j^ears, have gotten comfort by this
resignation. ' We are the clay, thou art the potter.' Thou mayest mould
and break us as thou wilt. The way now to escape the plague is not alto-
gether to use tricks of wit and policy (though lawful means must be used),
but labour to get into Christ, and resign ourselves into God's hands abso-
lutely, and say thus, ' We are the clay,' &c. Lord, thou mayest dash us
if thou wilt, as thou doest many hundreds weekly. Thou mayest dash us
in that fashion if thou wilt. Only we may have a desire that God would
make our lives and health precious to him, that we may serve him as if we
were now in heaven, and that we may have grace to make good use of all.
But if God have determined and decreed to take us away, let us resign our-
selves into his hands. It is no matter though the body be ' sown in dis-
honour, they shall be raised in honour,' 1 Cor. xv. 43. ' We are the clay,
he is the potter,' let him do what he will with our carcases and bodies,
so he be merciful to our souls. These vessels of clay, when they are
turned to earth, they shall be renewed of better stuff, like the glorious body
of Christ. Then our souls and bodies shall be glorious by him that took a
piece of flesh and clay for us. Oh the humility of Christ ! We wonder
that the soul should animate a piece of clay, so excellent a thing as the
soul is ; much more may we wonder that the Son of God should take a
piece of flesh and clay upon him ; to take our nature of base earth, to make
us eternally glorious as himself. Let it comfort us, though God dash our
clay as a potter. Yet Christ, that took our clay to the unity of his person,
our nature being engrafted into him, he will make our bodies eternal and
everlasting as his own glorious body. Let us resign ourselves into God's
hands, as the church here, ' Thou art the potter, and we are the clay,' and
then we shall never miscarry.

NOTES.

(a) P. 190. — ' Wlio would go to the pest-house, or to one that hath " Lord, have
mercy upon us," on the door?' The allusion is to the marks placed upon the ' pest-
houbcs,' and the dwellings of those sick during the plague in London — a visitation
very often and very solemnly referred to by Sibbes, who twice witnessed its devasta-
tion — viz., in 1603-4, and the subsequent one of 1624-5. Having died in 1635, he
did not pass through the ' Pestilence' of 1630.

(6) P. 200.- — ' " We melt away," ... as the word is.' Dr Joseph Addison Alexander
renders the phrase, ' For thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast melted us, because
of (or by means of) our iniquities.' It will generally be found that Sibbes's critical
remarks harmonise with the results of the highest modern scholarship. Cf. Note c,
Vol. I. page 31. G.

GOB'S INQUISITION.

GOD'S INQUISITION.

NOTE.

' God's Inquisition' forms part of the ' Beams of Divine Light' (4to, 1639). The
separate title-page is below.* For general title of the volume, see Vol. V. page 220.

GOD'S

INQVISITION.

In two Sermons

By the late Keverend and Learned

Divine Richard Sibs,

Doctor in Divinity, Master of Katherine Hall in

Cambridge, and sometimes Preaclier at

Graves Inne.

Gen. 18. 21.
1 ivill goc doxone now and see whether they have done altogether accor-
ding to the cry of it, which is come unto me ; and if not, I ivill knoio.

PSAL. 14. 3.
They are all gone aside, they are altogether hecome filthy, there is none
that doth good no not one.

[A wood-cut here of an angel, surrounded with a glory, leaning upon a cross ; his
right hand holding an open Bible, and liis feet trampling upon the usual skeleton-
representation of death.]

LONDON.

Printed by G. M. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford.
MDGXXXIX.

GOD'S INQUISITIOK

I hearkened and heard, hit theij sjjake not arir/ht: no man repented him of his
tvickedness, saying, What have I done ? everyone turned to liis course, as
the horse riisheih into the battle. Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her
appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the
time of their coming; but my j^eople know not the judgment of the Lord. —
Jer. ViII. 6, 7.

Upon the sins of people it hatli been alway God's course to send his pro-
phets to warn them beforehand, and afterwards, upon that, to observe how
they profit by that warning ; and thereupon he takes occasion to proceed
answerably. God usually exerciseth a great deal of patience ere he strikes.
He made the world in six days, but he is six thousand years in destroy-
ing it.

In this verse, after the holy prophet had menaced the judgment of God
upon them, there is set down what use they made of it. Alas ! ' They
spake not aright : no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What
have I done ? ' And lest they should object. How do you know this ? He
saith here it is upon inquisition, ' I hearkened and heard.' So the words
contain God's inquisition or inquiry, and then God's evidence upon that
inquiry, together with a complaint. His inquiry, ' I hearkened and heard.'
For we must apply these words to God. There is the same phrase, Mai.
iii. 16, ' The Lord hearkened, and heard ; and a book of remembrance
was written before him ; ' so here, ' I hearkened and heard.' Here is the
inquiry.

Then, secondly, the evidence upon the inquiry, ' they spake not aright.'
And, thirdly, the complaint upon that evidence set down.

1. First, Positively, ' They repented not of their wickedness,' which is
amplified, 1. From the generality of this their impenitency, 'No man
repented him;' and 2. From the cause of it: want of consideration.
They did not say, ' What have I done ? ' If they had called themselves
to account concerning what they had done, certainly they would have
repented.

2. Comparatively, * They turned to their course, as the horse rusheth
into the battle.'

3. Lastly, Superlatively, preferring the skill of the poor storks and cranes,
and the turtle and swallow, before the judgment of his senseless and stupid

208 god's inquisition.

people : * The stork in the licavons knoweth hex* appointed time ; and the
turtle, the crane, and the swallow ; but my people know not the judgment
of the Lord.' This is the sum of the words.

1. First, Of God's inquiry, 'I hearkened and heard.' Ere Sodom wa3
destroyed, the Lord came down to see whether there was just cause or
no. Gen. xviii. 21. God is most just. He will see cause for his judgments.
He hath no delight in punishing. When he judgeth, it is not out of his
sovereignty, but out of his justice. He doth it not as a sovereign Lord,
but as a just judge. Now, a judge must do all upon inquisition and evi-
dence ; therefore saith he, ' I hearkened and heard : ' where, by the way,
the gods of the earth, to whom he hath communicated his name, should
learn hence, not to be rash in their judgments, but to have sound evidence
before they pass sentence. 'I hearkened and heai'd.' To 'hearken' is
more than to hear: to apply one's self with some affection to hear a thing.

God is all car, as he is all eye. He hath an ear everywhere. He hath
an ear in our hearts. He hears what wo think, what we desire. He sees
all the secret corners of our hearts. Therefore, when he saith here, ' I
hearkened and heard,' it is by way of condescending to our capacity.

We may learn hence, briefly, that God hath an ear and an eye to our
carriage and dispositions, to our speeches and courses. If we had one alway
at our backs that would inform such a man and such a man what we say,
cue that should book our words, and after lay them to our charge, it would
make us careful of our words. Now, though we be never so much alone,
there are two always that hear us. God hearkens and hears, and God's
deputy in us, conscience, ' hearkens and hears.' God books it, and con-
science books it. As God hath a book wherein he wrote us before all
worlds, and the book of his providence for our bones, and all things that
concern us, so he hath a book for our works and words. Mai. iii. 16,
' They that feared the Lord spake often one to another ; and the Lord
hearkened, and heard it ; and a book of remembrance was written before
him,' &c. So here, 'I hearkened and heard.' God and conscience not©
and observe everything.

This doth impose upon us the duty of careful and reverent walking with
God. Would we speak carelessly or ill of any man if he heard us ?
When we slight a man, we say v/e care not if ho heard us himself. But
shall we slight God so ? Shall we swear, and lie, and blaspheme, and say
we care not though God hear us, that will lay everything to our charge,
not only words but thoughts. ' We shall give an account for every idle
word, and for every idle thought,' Mat. xii. 36, and shall we not regard it?
It is from the horrible profaneness of the poisonful, rebellious heart of man,
that men do not consider these things. ' God hearkens and hears.' He is
at our studies ; he is at our windows ; he hears us in our chambers, when
we are in company, when we meet together, when we take liberty to
censure and detract, when we swear and revile. What if men hear not !
yet conscience hears, and God hears. And when God shall lay open the
book of conscience, and lay before a man all his naughty* speeches and
wicked works, what will become of him then for not making use of this
principle, that ' God hearkens and hears ' ? God sees now with what minds
and affections we come about this business, whether it be formally to put
off God, to make it a cover for our sinful courses after, as if God were
beholding to us for what we do now, and therefore might the better bear
* That is, ' wicked.'— G.

GOD S INQUISITION.

200

with us, though we make bold with him hereafter. He not only hears what
we say, but sees our minds and purposes, nay, he ' knows our thoughts
long before they are.' This is the cause why godly men have alway walked
so carefully and circumspectly. They knew that God's eye and ear was
over them ; as Enoch and Noah, it is said in this regard that they ' walked
with God,' Gen. v. 2-1, vi. 9 ; and Joseph when he was tempted, ' Shall I
do this,' saith he, ' and sin against God '?' Gen. xxxix. 9 ; and shall not
God see if I do this ? ' Doth not he see my ways and count all my steps,'
saith Job, Job. xiv. IG. So again, What makes wicked men so loose ?
The prophet tells, Ps. xciv. 7> they say, ' The Lord shall not see, neither
shall the God of Jacob regard it.' Or as it is. Job xxii. 12, &c., ' Is not
God in the height of heaven ? How doth God Icnow '? can he judge through
the dark cloud ? Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he sees not ;
and he walketh not in the circuit of the heavens.' Tush ! he regardeth
not ; he is immured and shut up there. But to such atheists we see what
the prophet answers, Ps. Ixiv. 8, &c. Ye brutish, foolish people, shall he
that makes others hear not hear himself? ' He that planted the ear,' he
that is all ear, ' shall not he hear ? ' As it makes good men walk hohly
and reverently, to consider of this, that God is present, and present as an
observer and a judge, so the want of taking this to heart makes wicked
and carnal persons do as they do. So much briefly for these words, ' I
hearkened and heard.'

' No man spake aright.'

But what evidence doth he give upon this inquisition ? _ ' They spake
not aright,' which is amplified from the generality of this sin. 'No man
spake aright.' The meaning is especially that * they spake not aright con-
cerning the judgments of God threatened.' When God had threatened
judgments, he hearkened and heard what use they made of them, but ' they
spake not aright.'

Quest. In how many respects do we not speak aright in regard of the
judgments of God ?

Ans. 1. First, In m/ard of God, men speak not aright when they do
not see him in the judgment, but look to the creature, to the second
causes ; as now in the time of the plague, to look to the air and weather,
and this and that, which is a good providence, and to forget him that is
the chief ; to kill dogs and cats, and to let sin alone ; to cry out. Oh what
air there is this year ! and what weather it is ! to talk of the second causes
altogether, and to forget God : this is to talk amiss of God's judgments
threatened, in regard of God. .

2. Again, We talk amiss in regard of others, when we begm to slight
them in our thoughts and speeches. Oh they were careless people; they
adventured into company, and it was the carelessness of the magistrates ;
they were not well looked to ; they were unmerciful persons, &c. Is it not
God's hand ? Put case there might be some oversight ; art thou secure
from God's arrow? He that struck them, may he not strike thee ? This
is to talk amiss of the judgment of God in regard of others ; when we think
that God hath singled them out as sinners above the rest ; as the disciples
thought of the Galileans, ' whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifice,'
Luke xiii. 1. No, no, saith he; ' think not they were greater sinners than
the rest ; ' do not add your bitter censure of the judgment of God on them,
and make it heavier (there is a woe to such persons as add afflictions to
the afflicted, Prov. xx. 22, Phil. i. 16) : ' Except ye repent, ye shall all

VOL. VI. °

210 god's inquisition.

likewise perish,' Is not the ripest corn cut first ? God ofttimes takes
those away that are fittest for him, and leaves others to the cruelty of men.
Therefore hy this rash judgment there may be great wrong to men, and
to wrong men in our censures, it is to talk amiss of God's judgments in
regard of others.

3. Again, We talk amiss of God's judgments in regard of ourselves.

(1.) When ice murmur and fret any way against God, and do not submit
ourselves under his mighty hand as we should.

(2.) Again, We sin against the judgments of God abroad, when we take
liberty to inquire of the judrjments of God abroad, and never make use of
them ; as now to be asking what number die of the plague weekly, and our
hearts tremble not at it, we lift not up our hearts to God, ' God be merci-
ful to us,' ' Lord forgive our sins,' * What will become of us ?' We had
need to make our accounts even. This is to talk amiss of God's judg-
ments. It is a vein that men have naturally, to inquire after news of all
sorts, be it the sharpest and bitterest that may be ; though it be the
destruction, and ruin, and death of other men ; whatsoever it be they
desire to hear it, if news. In the mean time there is no care to make use of
it, which is directly that for which these men here are said to have talked
amiss, * No man spake aright.' Why ? ' No man repented him of his
wickedness,' &c., as we shall see afterwards. We should talk of the judg-
ments of God to be bettered by them. We should * learn righteousness
when the judgments of God are abroad,' Isa. xxvi. 9, and the arrows that
wound others we should make warning arrows to ourselves. Now when we
triflingly only inquire of these things, and are not moved ourselves, we talk
amiss of God's judgments.

Use. Let us labour to talk of the judgments of God, when they are abroad,
as we should. In regard of God, to raise our hearts above all second causes,
to see him in it. It is the hand of God, as the Scripture calls the plague,
whatsoever the second causes are, whether it be the air, and the devil
mingling himself ofttimes to corrupt the air, all is by God's permission and
providence. We should look to the first wheel that leads the rest and sets
them going. We should see God in all, and therefore speak reverently of
him. And in regard of our brethren, to speak charitably of them, and
think, it is the goodness of God that he hath not stricken us as he hath
them. And when we speak of ourselves, when the judgments of God are
on us, let us humble ourselves and justify God. We may complain, but it
must be of ourselves and of our sins, that have brought judgments upon us,
of our want of making use of the judgment of God upon others or upon
ourselves. Lesser judgments would not serve turn ; therefore God is fain
to follow us with greater. Let us alway justify God and complain of our-
selves, and then in regard of ourselves we ' speak aright' of the judgments
of God. Let us never speak of the judgments of God but with afiectiong
fit for judgments, with awful affections. ' Shall the lion roar, and shall not
the beasts of the forest tremble ?' Hos. si. 10. Shall we hear God roar in
his judgments, ' and hear the trumpet blown,' and not be affected ? We
see here how God complains, that when * he hearkened and heard, they
spake not aright.' Let us therefore make conscience of all our words.
We shall, if not now, yet at the day of judgment, ' give account for every
idle word,' Mat. xii. 3G, for every cruel word, as it is in the prophecy of
Enoch, cited in the Epistle of Jude. But especially let us take heed of
our words when we speak of God's judgments ; for it is the not speaking
aright of them that is here especially meant. ' I hearkened and heard, but

god's inquisition. 211

they spake not aright.' So much for the evidence. Come we now to the
next clause, God's complaint upon this evidence.

* No man repented him of his wickedness.'

They did not repent of their wickedness, and the fault was general : ' No
man repented.' The first yields this instruction,

Doct. That it is a state much offending God, not to repent when his judg-
ments are threatened,

God will not suffer it long unpunished, to be impenitent when his judg-
ments are abroad and threatened, much more when they have already seized*
upon our brethren. For that is the end of all his judgments, to draw us
near to him, to draw us out of the world, and out of our sinful courses.
When therefore we answer not, God must take another course. What is
the plague and other judgments but so many messengers sent to every one
of us to knock? And our answer must be, ' Lord, I will repent of my evil
ways,' ' I will turn from my evil courses and turn to thee.' If we give this
answer, God will take away his judgments, or sanctify them, and that is
better ; but when there is no answer, the messenger will not be gone ; God
will add plagues upon plagues till we give our answer, till we repent and
turn from our wicked ways.

Now that we may do this, we must be convinced thoroughly that the
courses we live in are unprofitable, dangerous, hateful courses, and that
the contrary state is better. For repentance is an after-wit, f and man being
a reasonable creature, will turnj from his way except he see great reason why.
Therefore there must be sound conviction that ' it is a bitter thing to offend
God,' Jer. ii. 19. We must indeed be convinced by the Sjjirit of God;
and the Spirit of God usually takes the benefit of affliction, affliction
together with instruction. Instruction without affliction will do little good.
Stripes and the word must go together, else we will not give God the hear-
ing as we should. Therefore that we may be soundly convinced of our
sins, we should desire God, especially in the hour of affliction, to help our
souls by his Spirit, that we may be convinced that our courses are naught,
that they are courses dishonourable to God and dangerous to ourselves ;
that sin defiles our souls ; that it hinders our communion with God, which
is the sweetest thing in the world ; that sin puts a sting into all our troubles ;
that sin makes us afraid of that that should be comfortable to us, of death
and judgment, and God's presence ; that sin grieves the good Spirit of God,
that would take up his lodging in us ; that it quencheth the motions of the
Spirit, that are sent as sweet messengers to us, to allure and comfort us ;
that sin grieves the good Spirit of God in others ; that it grieves the good
angels that are about us ; that it gratifies none but the devil, the enemy of
our salvation ; that it defiles and stains our souls, wherein the image of God
should shine ; that it doth us more harm than all the things in the world
besides — indeed, nothing hurts us but sin, because nothing but sin sepa-
rates us from God ; that it shuts heaven and opens hell, and so makes us
afraid of death, lest death should open the gate to let us into hell ; in a
word, that it hinders all good, and is the cause of all ill. Let us consider
of this, and work it on our hearts.

And consider withal our former courses, rip up our lives from our child-
hood, consider the sins of our youth, together with our present sins, that so
we may the better stir up and awaken our consciences. Let us consider

* Spelled ' ceazed.' — G. X Q,^- ' 'will not turn ' ? — Ed.

t That is, ' after-thought.'— G.

212 god's inquisition.

whether -we are now in a state wherein we could be content that God should
send his judgments upon us. Consider how we have been scandalous--i= to
others, how we have drawn others to sin, that the guilt of other men's sins
will lie upon us. It may be we have repented, but have they ? Consider
the repetition of our sins, if we have not committed them again and again,
and other circumstances that may aggravate them. Let us labour to work
these things on our hearts, and desire the Spirit of God to convince our
souls of the foulness and dangerousness of sin. When we sin against con-
science, what do we but set the devil in the place of God? We make our-
selves wiser than God. 'We leave God's ways, as if we could find better
and more profitable and more gainful courses than his. Sound conviction
of this will move us to repentance.

And let us be stirred up to repent presently. Doth not God now warn
you ? Is it not dangerous living one hour in a state that we would not die
in ? May not God justly strike us on the sudden ? Do but purpose to
live in sin one quarter of an hour ; may we not be taken away in that
quarter ? Is not repentance the gift of God, and are not gifts given
according to the good pleasure of the giver ? Wait therefore for the gales
of grace, and take them when they are ofiered. Grace is not like the tide,
that ebbs and flows, that we know when it will come again when we see it
go. No. God gives the gales of grace according to his good pleasure ;
therefore take the advantage of the present motions of the blessed Spirit.

The longer we live in any sin unrepented of, the more our hearts will be
hardened ; the more Satan takes advantage against us, the more hardly he
is driven out of his old possession, the more just it may be with God to
give us up from one sin to another. The understanding will be more dark
upon every repetition of sin, and conscience will be more dulled and
deaded. Those that are young, therefore, let them take the advantage of
the youth, and strength, and freshness of their years to serve God. That
which is blasted in the bud, what fruit may we look for from it afterwards ?
Alas ! when we see the younger sort given to blaspheme and swear, to loose-
ness and licentiousness, what old age may we look for there ? Again,
what welcome shall we expect, when we have sacrificed the best of our
strength and the marrow of our years to our lusts, to bring our old age to
God ? Can this be any other than self-love ? Such late repentance is
seldom sound. It comes, I say, from self-love, and not from any change
of heart. As in the humility of wretched persons, a little before the judge
comes, though they have carried themselves as rebels before, yet then they
will humble themselves, not out of any hatred to their courses, but out of
fear of the judge. So it may be now thou art arraigned by God's judg-
ments!; ^^°^ forsakest thy sinful courses, not out of the hatred of thy sins —
for if thou couldst thou wouldst sin eternally, and that is the reason sinners
are punished eternally, because they would sin everlastingly— but thou
seest thou art in danger to be pulled away by God's judgments. It is not
out of love to grace, it is not from any change of nature that thou desirest
to be a new creature, that thou admirest grace to be the best state, but it is
to avoid danger ; not that thou carest for the face of God, to be reconciled
to him, but to avoid the present judgment.

And what a staggering will this be to conscience, when a man shall defer

his repentance till God's judgments seize upon him ! We see it is false

for the most part, because such persons that are then humbled, when they

recover they are as bad or worse than ever they were. Therefore an

* That is, ' stumblingblocks.' — G.

god's inquisition. 213

ancient saith well, * He that is good only under the cross is never
good ' (ft). It comes not from any change that God works, but merely
from self-love. Therefore presently let us repent of those ways that God
convinceth our conscience to bo evil ways ; God may strike us suddenly.
Those that forget God, and care not for him now, it may be just with God
to make them forget themselves, to strike them with frenzy, to take away
the use of their memories then ; and when sickness comes we shall have
enough to do to conflict with sickness, we shall have enough to do to answer
the doubts of conscience. Oh, it would upbraid them ! We shall think it
a hard matter then to have favour from God, whose worship we have
despised, the motions of whose Spirit we have neglected and resisted. Con-
science, after long hardening in sin, will hardly admit of comfort. It is a
harder matter than it is taken for. Therefore, even to-day, presently, you
that are young, now in the days of your youth, now in the spring of your
years, repent you of your sins before old age comes, which indeed, as Solo-
mon describes it, ' is an ill time' to repent in, Eccles. xii, 1. Alas ! then
a man can hardly perform civil duties ; as we see in Barzillai, he complains
that in his old age he could not take the comfort of the creatures, 2 Sam.
xix. 32, seq. Therefore put not off this duty till then. And all, both
young and old, now when the judgments of God are abroad in the world,
take the advantage]; return to God, renew your covenants, make your peace
now. Now this danger doth warm our hearts a little, let us strike the iron
now while it is hot ; let us take the advantage of the Spirit now awakening
us with this danger. Our hearts are so false and so dull, we have need to
take all advantages of withdrawing ourselves from our shiful courses.

And to encourage us to do it, let us consider, if we do this, and do it in time,
we shall have the sweetness of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts.

You will say, We shall lose the sweetness of sin ; ay, but

1 . You shall have a most sweet communion with God. One day of a repentant
sinner, that is reconciled to God, is more comfortable than a thousand years
of another man that is in continual fear of death and judgment. Oh, the
sweet life of a Christian that hath made his peace with God ! He is fit
for all conditions : for life, for death, for everything. Now by thiswe shall
have this grace and favour of God. The Lord will say unto us by his Spirit,
' I am your salvation,' Ps. xxxv. 3. And besides, you shall have his grace
renewing and altering and changing you, framing you to a better course of
life. And he will be so far from misliking any for their former sins, that
he will give them cause to love him the more, as we see Luke vii. 47,
' She loved much, because she had much forgiven her.' Christ, we see,
upbraided not any of his followers with their former sins. He regarded not
what they had been formerly • Zaccheus the extortioner, Mary Magdalene,
Matthew the publican, Peter that denied him. We never hear that he
upbraided any of them. He doth not only vouchsafe mercy to Peter
repenting, but advanceth him to his former office apostolical. So sweet a
God have we to deal with ! Let this encourage us.

2. Again, It is the way to jirevent GocVs judgments, as we see in Nineveh
and others. Put case we repent not : we cannot go safe in the city nor any-
where, but God may meet with us, and strike us with his arrow. The
only way to prevent his judgments is to meet him speedily by repentance.
This is the way, not only to turn away the wrath of God concerning eternal
damnation, but outward judgments, as we see Joel ii. 12, seq., and many
other places.

3. Then again, should we be stricken, if we have made our peace with God,

214

GOD S INQUISITION.

if we have repented, all shall be urlcome, all shall he turned to our good.
We know the sting is pulled out. If the sting of death be pulled out, if
the malignity and poison of any sickness, be it the plague or whatsoever,
be pulled out, why should we fear it ? It comes in love, and shall be turned
to our good ; and in the mean time God sweetens it. Here is a grand dif-
ference between the children of God and others. If the judgment of God
light upon a repentant person, it comes from favour and love, to correct
him for his former sins. It is turned to good, and in the mean time it is
sweetened with love, and mixed with comfort, and modei'ated, as it is Isa.
sxvii. 7, ' Hath he afflicted thee as I afflicted others ?' No. He moderates
his judgments to his children ; and not only moderates them, but sweetens
them with comfort. If God do cox'rect a repentant person, he is no loser
by it, nay, he is a gainer. ' It is good for me that I have been afflicted,'
Ps. cxix. 67. Oh the blessed estate of that person that repents and turns
from his evil ways ! But if a man do not repent, but live still in sin, what
a state is he in ! God cares not for his pmijers. ' If I regard iniquity in
my heart, God will not hear my prayers,' Ps. Ixvi. 18. And what a state
is a man in, when his prayers, that should beg for blessings, and avoid
judgments, and procure deliverance, are not heard, ' but shall be turned
into sin !' When God, that is ' a God hearing prayer,' shall not regard
his prayer, what a case is this ! Yet if we regard iniquity in our hearts,
if we repent not of our sins, God will not regard our prayers.

Then, besides that, there is a noise of fear in the unrepentant person'' s heart.
Wheresoever he goes, he is afraid of the plague, afraid of sickness, afraid of
death, afraid of everybody. He knows he hath his heaven here : he hath not
the sting of evils pulled out, therefore he is afraid he shall go from the terrors
of conscience to the torments of hell. His conscience speaks terrible things
to him. What a cursed state is this ? How can he look with comfort any
way ? If he look to heaven, God is ready to pour the vials of his wrath, to
execute his vengeance on him. If he look to the earth, he knows not how
soon he shall be laid there, or that the earth may swallow him up. If he
think of death, it strikes terror to him. Everything is uncomfortable to an
unrepentant sinner. Let all this stir us up to this duty of repentance.
It is the end why God sends his judgments. First, he warns us by his
word. And if we neglect that, he sends judgments, and they seize on us.
That is a second warning. And if lesser judgments will not warn us, then he
sends greater, and all to make us repent. If we repent, we give the judg-
ments their answer, and he will either remove them or sanctity them. So
much for that. A word of the generality.

' No man.'

' No man repented of his evil ways.' We see, then,

Doct. That (jenerality is no jilea.

' We must not follow a multitude to do evil,' Exod. xxiii. 2. We must
not follow the stream, to do as the world doth. Will any man reason thus ?
Now there die so many weekly of the plague. It is no matter whither I
go. I will go now into any jjlace, without any respect to my company, &c.
Will he not reason, on the contrary, Therefore I will take heed, I will
carry preservatives about me, and look to my company ? Self-love will
teach a man to reason so. The infection is great, therefore I will take the
more heed. And will not spiritual wisdom teach us, the more spreading and
infectious sin is, the more heed to take ? ' When all flesh had corrupted
their way, then came the flood,' Gen. vi. 12. Generality of sin makes way

GOD S INQUISITION. 215

for sweeping judgments that takes all away. Therefore we have more
reason to tremble when the infection of sin hath seized upon all, when
' no man repents of his wickedness.' A man should resolve, Surely I will
come out of such company, as we see Lot departed out of Sodom, and David
in his time 'was as a pelican in the wilderness,' Ps. cii. 6. I will rather
go to heaven alone, than go to hell and be damned with a multitude. Mul-
titude is no plea to a wise man. Shall we think it a means to increase
danger m worldly things ? and shall we think it a plea in spiritual things '>
It hath been the commendation of God's children, that they have striven
against the stream and been good in evil times. ' Kedeem the time be-
cause the days are evil,' saith the apostle, Eph. v. 16. A carnal Christian
saith. Do as the rest do ; but saith David, ' Mine eyes gush out with rivers
of waters, because men keep not thy law,' Ps. cxix. 136. Do not fear that
you shall pass unrespected if you be careful to look to yourselves this way.
If there be but one Lot in Sodom, one Noah and his family in the old world*
he shall be looked to as a jewel among much dross. God will s'mcrle him
out as a man doth his jewels, when the rubbish is burnt. God wilfhave a
special care to gather his jewels. When a man makes conscience of his
ways in ill times and ill company, God regards him the more for witnessing
to his truth and standing for and owning his cause in ill times. It shews
sincerity and strength of grace, when a man is not tainted with the common
corruptions. ' No man repented.'

What was the cause of all this, that they were thus unrepentant, and
that generally ' no man said,'

' What have I done ?'

They did not say in their hearts and tongues, ' What have I done ?'
They were inconsiderate, they did not examine, and search, and try their
ways. Here we see.

First, That a man can return upon himself; he can search and try his
own ways, and cite, and arrest, and arraign himself, ' What have I done *>'
This IS a prerogative that God hath given to the understanding creature.
The reasonable soul, it can reflect upon itself, which is an act of judgment.
The brute creatures look forward to present objects ; they are carried to
present things, and cannot reflect. But man hath judgment to know
what he hath done and spoken, to sit upon his own doings, to jud^^e
of his own actions. God hath erected a tribunal in every man ; he hath
set up conscience for a register, and witness, and judge, &c. There are
all the parts of judicial proceeding in the soul of man. This shews the
dignity of man ; and considering that God hath set up a throne and seat
of judgment in the heart, we should labour to exercise this jud-^ment.

Secondly, God having given man this excellent prerogative to°cite himself
and to judge his own courses, lohen man doth not this, it is the cause of all
mischief, of all sin and misery. Alas ! the vile heart of man is proiie to
thmk, it may be God hath decreed my damnation, and he might make me
better if he would. But why dost thou speak thus ? wicked man, the
fault is in thyself, because thou dost not what thou mightst do. Hath not
God set up a judgment-seat in thy heart, to deliberate of thine own courses
whether thou dost well or ill? And thy own conscience, if thou be not an
atheist and besotted, tells thee thou dost ill, and accuseth thee for it. An
ordmary swearer, that by atheistical acquaintance and poisonful breeding is
accustomed to that sin, if he did consider. What good shall I get by this ?
by provoking God, who hath threatened that I shall not go guiltless, and

216 god's inquisition.

that ' I shall give an account for every idle word,' much more of every idle
oath ? the consideration of this would make him judge and condemn
himself, and repent and amend his ways.

Tkirdtij. The exercising of this judgment, it makes a mans life lightsome.
He knows who he is and whither he goes. It makes him able to answer
for what he doth at the judgment-seat of God. It makes him do what he
doth in confidence, it perfects the soul every way.

Fourthijj, Again, Whatsoever we do without this consideration, it is not
put upon our account for comfort. When we do things upon judgment, it
is with examination whether it be according to the rule or no. Our service
of God is especially in our affections, when we joy, and fear, and delight
aright. Now how can a man do this without consideration ? For the
affections, wheresoever they are ordinate and good, they are raised up by
judgment. They are never good but when they are regular and according
to judgment. When judgment raiseth up the affections, and we see cause
why we should delight in God, and love him and fear him more than any-
thing in the world, they are then an effectual part of divine worship ; but
else they are flat, and dead, and dull, if we waken them not with considera-
tion. The heart follows the judgment. The brain and the heart sympathise,
when we see cause and reason to love, and fear, and worship God. We
must * love God with all our mind,' that is, with our best understanding.
We must see reason why we do so.

Therefore let us labour to use our understanding more this way. Is our
UHderstanding and judgment given us to plot for the world, to be judicious
for the things of this Hfe only ? No ; but to be wise for the main end,
to glorify God, to save our souls, to get out of the corruption of nature,
to maintain our communion with God every day more and more. The end
of our living in the world is to begin heaven upon earth ; so to live here
as that we may live for ever in heaven. Whatsoever is done in order to
this end is good ; but nothing can bo done to this end but upon due con-
sideration. Let us improve our judgments for that end. They are princi-
pally given us, not for particular ends, to get this or that man's favour, to
get wealth, &c., but to use all as they may serve the main. We know not
how short a time we shall enjoy these things ; and further than they serve
for the main, we shall have no comfort of them ere long. Our projects
should be to gain glory to God, and to bring ourselves and others to heaven.
There is excellent use of this consideration. This way it is one main way
to repentance. We see here, ' No man repenteth,' because ' no man said,
What have I done ? '

Now if we would practise this duty, we must labour to avoid the hin-
drances. The main hindrances of this consideration are,

(1.) The rage of lusts, that will not give the judgment leave to consider
of a man's ways ; but they are impetuous, commanding, and tyrannous,
cirrying men, as we shall see in the next clause, ' as the horse rusheth
into the battle.' We see many carried to hell that never enjoyed them-
selves, but are alway under some base pleasure. When the devil hath
filled them with one pleasure, then they project for another, and never take
time to say, ' What have I done ? ' Oh the tyranny of original corruption !
If we had in our eye the vile picture of our nature, that carries us to things
present, to profits and pleasures, and gives us not liberty and leisure to
bethink ourselves, would we do as we do ? Alas ! we see some men so
haunted with their lusts that they cannot be alone, they cannot sleep ; and
when they are awake they must have music, as that king when he mas-

GOD S INQUISITION.

217

sacred a world of men, he could not be quiet a wliit, conscience raged so.*
When men follow their pleasures, they rob them of themselves. Therefore
they are said in Scripture to be madmen, and fools without wit. They are
so taken up with the rage of their lusts that they have not liberty to enjoy
themselves, they have no time for consideration.

(2.) And then another hindrance is too much business, when men are
distracted with the things of this hfe. They are overloaded with cares,
with Martha's part, and so neglect Mary's part. This makes men toil and
droilf for the world, and never consider where they are nor whither they
go, how it shall be with them when they go hence, how the case stands
with them before God, whether they be gotten out of the cursed state of
nature that we are all born in. They never think of this, but all the
marrow and strength of their souls is eaten out with the world. Those
that in their youth followed their lusts, when they come to years are taken
up with the world, and shght religion. Their minds are employed how to
get the favour of this man and that, and so have not leisure to consider
what will become of their souls. Therefore too much distraction with the
things of the world is joined with drunkenness : * Be not overcome with
the cares of this life, with surfeiting and drunkenness,' saith Christ, Luke
xxi. 34.

(3.) Then, it is a secret and hard action; because it is to work upon a
man's self. It is an easy matter to talk of others, to consider other men's
ways. You shall have men's tongues ready to speak of other men ; they
do so and so. And thus they feed themselves with talking of other men, and
in the mean time neglect the consideration of their own state. And again,
it is a plausible thing. He that talks of other men's faults gives an inti-
mation that he is innocent, and he had need be so. It is easy and
plausible. Men glory in it. It feeds corrupt nature to talk of other men's
faults, but to come home to a man's self, that is a hard thing. It is without
ostentation or applause. The world doth not applaud a man for speaking
of his own faults. Men are not given to retired actions. They care not
for them, unless they have sound hearts ; and this being a retired action,
that hath no glory nor credit with it, men are loath to come to it.

(4.) Then, again, it is not only hard and secret, but this returning upon
a man's self, it presents to a man a s2-)ectacle that is umcelcome. If a man
consider his own ways, it will present to him a terible object. Therefore
as the elephant troubles the waters, that he may not see his own visage, so
men trouble their souls, that they may not see what they are. They shall
see such a deal of malice and self-love, and fear and distrust, that they
would not have others in the world to see for anything. But it is good to
see it ; for repentance and consideration it is physic, it is sharp but whole-
some. It is better to have the physic a day than to have the sickness and
disease all the j'ear. So this consideration and repentance, though it be
sharp, yet take it down, for it will prevent God's eternal judgment ; as the
fipr-coie saith, ' If we would judge and condemn ourselves, we should not
be condemned with the world,' 1 Cor. xi. 31. What an excellent thing is
this, that we may keep sessions in our own souls, and so need not be called
to God's assizes ! Men are called to that, because they slubber over and
neglect this. Men will not keep this sessions in their own hearts — which
they might do not only quarterly, but daily — and thereby they make work
for God. Is it not better now to unrip our consciences by consideration
and repentance, than to have all ripped up then, when the devil shall stand
* Cf. note, Vol. I. pago 149.— G. t That is, ' drudge.'— G.

218

GOD S INQUISITION.

by to accuse us, who will say, This was done by my instigation ; and it ia
so ; and our own consciences shall take part with the devil, and accuse us
also ? It will be little for our ease to make God our judge. We might
save the labour by putting conscience to its office now, to examine our
ways every day, especially now, when God calls for it by his judgments.
Repentance is the covenant of the gospel, and repentance depends upoa
this consideration. So much for that. ' No man repented him of his
wickedness, saying, What have I done ? ' But did they stay here ? No ;
it follows,

' Every one turns to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.'

Every one hath his course, his way, whether good or evil. The course
of a wicked man it is a smooth way perhaps, but it is a going from God ;
it leads from him. And where doth it end ? for every way hath its end.
It is a going from God to hell. There all the courses of wicked men end.
Examine, then, where thy course begins, and where it ends ; from what
thou walkest, and to what ; whither thy course aims ; consider where thy
speeches and actions are like to end. The specification and denomination
of our ways to be good or evil is especially from the end. The wicked
they take their courses, smooth wide courses, the broad beaten way, where
they may have elbow-room enough, though it end in hell and destruction.
But the wicked and their ways are both hated of God. Otherwise it is
with God's children. They may sometimes step into ill ways, but they
have not an ill course ; and God doth not judge a man by a step, but by
his course and way. Therefore consider what is the tenor of thy life. Is
thy way good ? Oh, it is an excellent thing to be in a good way! for a man
every day to repent of his sins, to make his peace with God, to practise
the duties of Christianity in his general calling, and in his particular call-
ing to call upon God for a blessing. Such a man's way is good ; it hath a
good end. Perhaps he may step out of his way by the temptations of Satan,
but that is not his course. The best man in the world for a passion on
the sudden may step into an ill way ; as David, when he determined to
kill Nabal, but it was not David's way. Therefore we see how soon he
was put ofi' with a little counsel, and how thankful he was : * Blessed be
the Lord, and blessed be thou, and blessed be thy counsel,' &c., 1 Sam.
XXV. 32. His way and course was another way. And so on the other
side the wickedest man in the world may set a step in a good way for a
fit, a very Saul may be amongst the prophets, and speak excellently and
divinely ; but all this while he is out of his way. His way is a course of
wickedness, to which therefoi-e he will soon betake himself again ; as it is
here said of these men, * They turned to their own courses.'

* As the horse rusheth into the battle.'

Here it is comparatively set down. If you would see how the ' horse
rusheth into the battle,' it is hvely and divinely expressed. Job xxxix. 19,
by God himself: ' Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed
his neck with thunder ? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper ?
the glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rcjoiceth
in his strength ; he goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear,
and is not affrighted ; neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver
rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the
ground with fierceness and rage ; neither believeth he that it is the sound
of the trumpet. He saith among the trumpets. Ha, ha ! and he smelleth
the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.' There

god's inquisition. 219

you have an excellent description of this creature's fierceness — the wit of
man hath not such expressions — and how ' he rushcth into the battle.' God,
to abase wicked men, compares them here to the horse ; not for that which
is good in him, but for their violence in ill courses. They rush into them
• as the horse rusheth into the battle.' Now, the horse rusheth into the
battle, (1.) eagerly, as you see him described in the place of Job; and
(2.) desperatclij, he will not be pulled away by any means ; and then
(3.) dmigeromhj, for he rusheth upon the pikes, and ofttimes falls down
suddenly dead. He regards not the pikes, nor guns, nor nothing, but
rusheth on the danger. Herein wicked men are like unto the horse, going
on in their course eagerly, desperately, dangerously.

1. Thexj go on eagerly. It is meat and drink unto them : ' they cannot
sleep until they have done wickedness.' They plot and study it ; it is
their delight. They are not in their element but when they are talking
wickedly and corruptly, or deceiving, or satisfying their desires, the ambi-
tion and lusts of their corrupt nature. They can no more live out of these
courses than the fish can live out of the water. Therefore they go eagerly
upon them.

2. And as they go eagerly, so desperately and Irreclaimahly too ; nothing
will restrain them, no thorns nor troubles that can lie in their way. Though
God hedge in their ways with thorns, they break through all, Hosea ii. 6.
Even as Balaam, he would go on though there were a sword drawn before
him, he was more brutish and unreasonable than his poor beast ; the very
sword of the angel could not move that covetous wretch to go back. So
it is with every wicked man, he goes on desperately, nothing will keep him
back and reclaim him. Though God take many courses to do it, by his
ministers, magistrates, by the motions of his Spirit, by his judgments
threatened, by judgments executed upon others, and upon themselves
sometimes, yet they are so eager upon their sins, all this will not beat them
ofi". They love their sins better than their souls ; nor is it only open
riotous persons that thus rush into sins, but civil -= rebellious persons also,
that bless themselves in their ways, and it may be live as irreligiously as
the other. Take a covetous or an ambitious man : he sacrificeth all to get
such a place, &c. Such a man mocks Christ, as the Pharisees mocked
him, notwithstanding all his good sermons and miracles. He goes on
desperately, nothing will hold him. He breaks through all bars and opposi-
tions. He cracks his conscience, grieves the good motions of the Spirit,
despiseth good counsel, and will venture upon the outward breach of laws
sometimes, rather than he will be defeated of his designs.

3. And as they go eagerly and desperately, so dangerously too ; for is it
not dangerous to provoke God ? to rush upon the pikes ? to run against
thorns ? ' Do you provoke me to jealousy,' saith God, ' and not your-
selves to destruction ' ? 1 Cor. x. 22. No. They go both together. If
you provoke me to anger, it will be to your own ruin. In Lev. xxvi. 23,
' God will walk stubbornly to them as they have done to him ; and he will
be froward with the froward,' Ps. xviii. 26. Those that are rebellious
sinners, whom no bonds will hold, no counsel, that break all laws, as the
man possessed with the devil brake his chains, the time will come that
when God executes his wrath he will be too good for them, the devil will
be too good for them, hell will be too good for them, conscience will tear
them in pieces, and the judgment of God will seize on them. The way of
wicked men is a wretched, a desperate, and dangerous course. Thou art

* That is, ' moral.' — G.

220

GOD S INQUISITION.

stubborn against God, and be is so against tbee. He will do to tbee as
thou doest to bim. Wbo are we ? ' Are we stronger tban God ' ? 1 Cor. x. 23.
Careless, atbeistical persons tbink tbey are. Tusb ! tbey can wind out
well enougb : but tbey will find it otherwise. * Do we provoke tbe Lord to
jealousy? Are we stronger tban be' ? saitb tbe apostle. Let us lay tbis to
heart.

We see here again bow sin bath clean defaced tbe image of God in man.

* Man being in honour,' be would become like God. He was weary of bis
subordination. He would be absolute ; and because be would be like God,
God made bim like tbe beast ; and it is worse to be bke tbe beast tban to
be a beast. For tbe beast in bis own condition follows tbe instinct of
natui'e ; but to be like a beast, is for a man to unman himself, to degrade
himself to a baser condition tban God made bim in ; and when a man doth
this, be is either in malice like tbe devil, or in licentiousness as the beast
is. He is alway like tbe devil or a beast till he be a new creature. And
that our nature is come to this, we are beholding to our own yielding to
Satan and his counsel. We ' rush as the horse into the battle.' There-
fore let us beware of this. ' Be ye not as tbe horse and mule,' &c., saitb
David, Ps. xxxii. 9. \Vbo would not labour to be in a better condition ?
to be a new creature, to be changed by tbe powerful ordinances and Spirit
of God ? So much for that briefly. Come we now to tbe last clause.

' Yea, tbe stork in the heavens knowetb her appointed times ; and tbe
turtle and the crane and tbe swallow observe tbe time of their coming ; but
my people know not the judgment of the Lord.'

Here is another expression comparative, or rather superlative. He com-
pares them to the 'stork and turtle, tbe crane and swallow ; and prefers
these poor creatures, in wisdom and providence, as going before men.

* But my people know not tbe judgment of the Lord.' There needs no
great explication of tbe words. Judgment is directive or corrective.

The directive is the law of God ; setting down God's judicious* course.
Tbis you shall do, or if you do not this you shall be punished. When we
obey not God's directive course, we meet with his corrective ; for judg-
ment is tbe stablisbing of judgment. Judgment of correction is tbe stab-
lisbing of judgment of direction. God's lav/s must be performed. Tbey
are not scare-crows. If we avoid tbe one, we shall run into the other. If
we do not meet him in tbe judgment of bis directive law, we must be met
with in his law corrective — if we be good men — or destructive if we be bad
men. Now here, I take it, be means especially tbe judgment of correction,
tbe time of visitation. It was a dangerous time, as it is now among us.
Tbey were already under several heavy judgments, as famine, &c. We see
in the next verse, ' there was no vines, no grapes,' &c., all failed. And
besides, a far heavier judgment was ready to come upon them. They
were ready to be carried into Babylon, ' and tbey knew not tbe judgment
of tbe Lord.'

' Tbey knew not ; ' that is, they did not make use of it ; for in divinity,
things are not known when they are not affected. f God knowetb all things,
but when be doth not affect and delight in us, be is said ' not to know us.'
So we are said not to know, when we do not affect and make use of things.

* They know not the judgment of tbe Lord.' Tbey were not ignorant. '1 He had
told them of vengeance ; be bad told them that they should be carried into
captivity ; but they made not that use they should of it. Therefore they

* That is, 'judicial.'— G. f Tliat is, ' chosen,' = attended to.— G.

god's inquisition. 221

are said not to know it. So the old world. It is said they did not know
of the flood. Certainly Noah had told them of it. But when they made
not a right use of it, but went on brutishly, they knew it not. It is all
one not to know it at all, and not to make use of it. Wicked men think
they know God, and they know religion well enough ; ay, but what use do
they make of it in their particular course ? That which we do not use we
do not know in religion. If ill be discovered, and be not avoided by thee,
thou art a brutish, senseless creature. Thou dost not know it, and so thou
shalt be dealt with. * They know not the judgment of the Lord ;' that is,
they will not know it ; it was affected ignorance. The words being thus
unfolded, here, first, we see,

That God confounds the proud dispositions of ivicked men by poor, silly
creatures — the crane, the turtle, the swallow, and the like.

What their wisdom is we see by experience. In winter, to fly from hard
and cold parts to those where there is a spring. They are here in the
moderate season ; and when the summer is gone, they go to a more mode-
rate air, where they may live better. For the life is the chief good of such
poor creatures, and their happiness being determined in their life, they
labour to keep that. They have an instinct put in them by God to pre-
serve their being by removing from place to place, and to use that that
may keep life.

Now, man is made for a better life ; and there be dangers concerning
the soul in another world, yet he is not so wise for his soul and his best
being as the poor creatures are to preserve their being by the instinct of
nature. When sharp weather comes they avoid it, and go where a better
season is, and a better temper of the air; but man, when God's judgments
are threatened and sent on him, and God would have him part with his
sinful courses, and is ready to fire him, and to force him out of them, yet
he is not so careful as the creatures. He will rather perish and die, and
rot in his sins, and settle upon his dregs, than alter his course. So he is
more sottish than the silly creatures. He will not go into a better estate,
to the heat, to the sunbeams to warm him. He will not seek for the
favour of God, to be cherished with'the assurance of his love, as the poor
creature goeth to the sun to warm it till it be over hot for it. Man should
know what is good and what is evil. The new creature doth so. For with
the change of nature there is a divine wisdom put into the soul of a Chris-
tian, that teacheth him what is good and what is evil ; that he may be
careful to avoid the evil ; that he m<ay discern of things that difier ; that
he may say. This is good for my soul, and all the world shall not scofi" me
out of that that I know to be good. With their profane jesting, they shall not
drive me from that is good ; and for courses that are ill, they shall not
draw me with all their allurements. I know what belongs to the good of
my soul better than so. It should be thus with Christians, to be wise for
their spiritual being, as the poor creatures, the stork, and the crane, and
the turtle, are to preserve their poor life here with as much comfort as
they can.

God takes out of the book of nature things useful, to insert them into
his divine book ; because now no man shall be ashamed to learn of the
creatures. Now, since the fall, man must learn of the poor creatures, and
such a dunce is man, it is well for him if he can learn of the ant, and crane,
and turtle ; and therefore doth God take lessons out of the book of nature,
and put them into his book, to teach us to furnish ourselves with divine
mysteries and instructions from the creatm-es. And indeed a gracious heart

222 god's inquisition.

will make use of everything, and have his thoughts raised with them. Aa
the prophet Jeremiah here, he shames them by the example of the creatures.
But of this by the way.

The thing most material, with which I will end, is this :

Doct. That God, after long patience, hath judgments to come on people ;
and it should he the j^n^t of people to know when the judgment is coming.

There is a season when God will forbear no longer in this world. ' They
know not the judgment of the Lord.' The meaning is not, in hell, though
that may come in : that is implied in all ; but ' they know not the ^^udgment
of the Lord,' that is, they know not the judgments that are coming. When
judgments are coming, God opens the hearts and understandings of his
people to know them ; as there is an instinct in the creatures to know when
there will be hard weather.

Quest. But how shall we know when a judgment is near hand ?

Ans. 1. By comparing the sins with the judgments. If there be such sins
that such judgments are threatened for, then as the thread followeth the
needle, and the shadow the body, so those judgments follow such and such
courses. For God hath knit and linked these together. All the power in
the world and hell cannot unlink them, sin and judgment ; judgment either
correcting us to amendment, or confounding us to perdition. God, there-
fore, having threatened in the Scriptures such judgments to such sins ; if
we live in such and such sins, we may look for such judgments. Thus a
wise man, by laying things together, the sins with the judgments, though
he cannot tell the particular, yet he may know that some heavy judgment
is at hand.

2. Again, There is a nearer way to know a judgment, ivhcn it hath seized
on ns in piart already. He that is not brutish and sottish, and drunk with
cares and sensuality, must needs know a judgment when it is already
inflicted, when part of the house is on fire. We see judgment hath seized
now on the places where we live, and therefore we cannot be ignorant of it.

3. Again, We may know it hy the example of others. God keeps his old
walks. Therefore it is said, * As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be
when the Son of man comes : they were eating, and drinking, and marry-
ing, and knew not till the flood came and took them away,' Mat. xxiv. 38, 39.
God will be like himself, if sinners be like themselves. He will not change,
if they change not ; but will deal alike with them in his judgments, as he
hath dealt with others. What ground have we to hope for immunity more
than others ? We may rather expect it less, because we have their examples ;
and so they wanted those examples to teach them which we have. In Jer,
vii. 12, saith God, ' Consider, look to Shiloh, and see what I did there :
so will I do to you.' So likewise the judgments on Jerusalem are a fearful
spectacle for us. These and other examples may help us to judge of our
condition in regard of approaching judgments.

4. Again, General security is a great sign of some judgment coming. In
the days of Noah, there was a general sensual security. Notwithstanding
the prophet foretold them of the deluge, they were eating, &c., and knew
not till the flood came and took them away. So likewise, if we eat, and
drink, and marry, and build, and be negligent and careless of making our
peace with God, especially when warning is given us, it is a sign that some
judgment, either personal on ourselves, or generally on the place we live
in, will come upon us. There is never more cause of fear, than when there
is least fear. The reason is, want of fear springs from infidelity, for faith
stirs up fearfulness and care to please God : ' By faith Noah, moved with

god's inquisition. 223

fear,' or reverence, * builded the ark,' Heb. xi. 7. It proceeds from infi-
delity, not to be afraid when there is cause. Again, where there is no fear,
there is no care. So the root of the want of fear is infidelity, and the spring
that comes from it is carelessness, which always goes before destruction.
When men care not what becomes of them : if God be pleased, so it is ; if
judgment come, so it is ; the care* is taken. ' When men thus say. Peace,
peace, then cometh destruction.' It is a terrible thing for a state or a city,
or a particular person, to be careless ; for the life of a Christian it is a
watching, as well as a warring, condition. He must be alway on his guard.
Therefore he must not be careless, ' and say, Peace, when God speaks no
peace.'

5. Again, We may know that some judgment is coming, hy the universality
and generality of sin, ichcn it spreads over all. When there is a general
infection of sin, we may well fear the infection of the air. Sin hath infected
the souls of men ; therefore no wonder if God, in the plague, have a hand
in infecting their bodies. We see here, before the prophet threatened this
destruction, there was a generality of sin. In the 10th verse of this chap-
ter, he cries out against the covetousness and false dealing of the priests
and prophets, and men of all estates. And so also chapter v. ver. 4, ' The
poor they were naught :' they were poor in grace and goodness, as well as
in condition. Then saith he, * I will see if there be any goodness in the
great ones : I will get me to the great men.' Ver. 5, &c., * They have
known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God ; but they have
broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.' When poor and rich, great and
small, when all are sottish and brutish, ' when all flesh had corrupted their
ways,' Gen. vi. 12, as it was before the flood, then judgment must needs
come. Surely generality of sin makes way for generality of judgment. As
the deluge of sin made way for the deluge of water, so the overflow of sin
will make way for a flood of fire. God will one day purge the world with
fire.

But now for particular sins, whereby we may know when judgment is
coming. These they are :

(1.) First, Injustice and formality in religion. When men are generally
unjust, destruction is near ; and indeed, how can a Christian soul look upon
men's courses abroad in these regards, ' but he shall weep in secret,' Lam.
i. 16 ? Is there not a general injustice ? Will not men get any cause, so
they have a good purse ? Is not innocency trodden down ofttimes ?

2. And so for religion. It is generally neglected. Indifierency and
formality they are the sins of the times. Here is a sweet progress. In
Queen Elizabeth's time, we began with zeal and earnestness ; but now we
begin to stagger whether religion is the better. We will join and put them
together, that God hath put an eternal difference between, ' light and dark-
ness.' Is this our progress after so much teaching, to put off" God with
formality, and deny the power ?

(3.) Again, Another particular sin foreshewing judgment, is jjersecution of
religion and religious men. When God is worshipped with conscience as he
should be, what imputations are laid on it ! I need not speak. The world
knows well enough. Can God endure this, when conscience of his service
shall go under the brand of opposition ? God is much beholding to the
times, when there is nothing so heartily hated as that. There are many
things loathsome, as deboishness,f &c. But what is so eagerly and heartily
hated as the power of godliness ? That which they have been known to do
* Qu. ' no care ' ?— Ed. t That is, • debauchery.'— G.

224 GOlVs INQUISITION.

for conscience, hath been matter of reproach and ruin almost to many men.
If a man will not prostitute his conscience to a creature, to make an idol of
him, to set him highest, if he will not be buxom, and crack his conscience
for a creature, he is scarce thought fit to live in the world. Will God
sufier this, if these things be not amended ? If anything be good in reli-
gion, the more the better, the more exact Christian the better. Exactness
in other things is best. Is to be best in the best naught, when to be best
in that which is not so good carries away the commendations ? In 1 Thess.
ii. 16, * The wrath of God is come on them to the utmost ; God they hate
and they are contrary to all men.' This is a forerunner of destruction, the
spiteful opposing of goodness. God will not endure it long.

(4.) And so when men will rjo on incorrigibly in sin, as these here, * they
rush as the horse into the battle ;' when they will not be reclaimed, it is a
forerunner of destruction. Alas ! the ministers of God strive with men,
' but they break off the cords,' Ps. ii. 3, and cry. Tush ! they are silly
men ; shall we yield to them ? V/e know what is for our gain, and
profit, and credit in the world better than so. Let us look to that, and not
be hampered in these religious bonds. No ; we are wiser than so. Thus
when men are incorrigible, and account the wisdom of God stark folly, it is
a sign of destruction. There is an excellent place for this, Ezek. xxiv. 12-14,
' She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not out of
her : she would not have her filthiness taken from her. In her filthiness is
lewdness ; because I would have purged thee,' with the word and the
preaching of judgments, ' and thou wouldst not be purged ; therefore thou
shalt not be purged till thou die, until I cause my fury to rest upon thee.
I the Lord have spoken it : it shall come to pass, I will do it.' When God
goes about to purge us by his word, and we will not amend our ways, we
will not stoop, but * strengthen an iron sinew, and a whore's forehead,'
Jer. iii. 3. We will not be purged, nay, saith God, thou shalt not be
purged till I purge thee out of the world to hell, till my fury rest on thee.
I the Lord have spoken it, it shall come to pass, Isa. slvi. 11. There is
another notable place, Prov. xxix. 1, ' He that is a man of reproof,' that is,
a man that is sermon-proof, that is often reproved and yet carries himself
impudently and hardens his heart, and stiffens his neck, ' he shall suddenly
be destroyed.' He doth not mean but that he had warning enough ; but
because after long warning he hardens his neck, he shall suddenly be
destroyed, when he. looks not for it, ' and that without remedy.' There is
the same phrase in 2 Chron. xxxvi, 16, ' There was no remedy,' when they
did not regard God's ministers, that directed them the way to heaven, but
would hve in rebellion against the means of salvation. Then saith God,
* there was no remedy.' God sent his messengers betimes, and had com-
passion on his people. He would not have had them perish. ' They
trifled with him and. mocked his messengers,' accounted them weak men.
They despised his word, and misused his prophets ; and then the Lord's wrath
rose against his people, and ' there was no remedy.' So when people are
as those here in the text, that ' they rush as the horse into the battle,'
that they are sermon-proof, that when every sermon they hear, as the
hammer on the smith's anvil, makes them harder and harder, as Moses
speaking to Pharaoh increased the hardness of his heart, it is a sign of
destruction.

Now whether it be so or no, I leave it to your particular consciences.
We that are ministers tell you of your filthiness, of your profaning the name
of God, and contempt of God's word. Whether have we gained upon you

GOD S INQUISITION. 225

or no ? Who hath left an oath ? Who hath left his wicked courses and
entered into a nearer communion with God for all our teaching ? Blessed
is that man. It is a sign God will not destroy him. It is a sign that in
the general visitation God will regard that man. But, alas ! we may almost
complain with Jeremiah in his prophecy, Jer. v. 1, where he runs up and
down to seek a man. Alas ! they are very few. They are thick sown,
but come thin up, that obey the ordinance of God. It is some comfort
that men will submit to the ordinance, that they will come to hear. Some
good may be learned. It is better than to keep out of the compass of God's
law, as those men do that pretend they can read sermons at home, and so
will teach God a course to bring men to heaven. There is hope of men
when they submit to God's ordinance. But, I beseech you, how are you
affected now for the present ? How do you come now into the presence of
God, if you will not amend and resolve to enter into a new course ? He
that is often reproved and will not come in, 'judgment will come suddenly
on him without all remedy.' And it is good it should be without remedy ;
because it is without excuse. You cannot plead, and say that there were
not prophets among you. If the heathens were hardened and given up to
destruction, — ' the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against them,'
Rom i. 18, because they lived in a course of rebellion against the light of
nature ; — shall you, that have the light of nature, and the word of God, and
the motions of his Spirit too, think to live in rebelHon and not be accountable
for it ? It shall be easier for them that never heard of the word of God.
Where God hath magnified his mercy, he will exalt judgment. Those
that are lift up to heaven in privileges, shall be cast down to hell. ' Woe
unto thee, Capernaum,' &c.. Mat. xi. 21. The more in privileges, the more
in judgment if they be abused.

(5.) Again, Another particular sin whereby we may discern a judgment
coming is, imfruitfulness under the means ; as the fig-tree, when it was digged
and dunged, and yet was unfruitful, then it was near a curse. In Heb.
vi. 3, the ground that is tilled and manured, and hath the rain falling on
it, it is then ' near unto cursing' if it bring not forth. Perhaps a heathen,
a pagan, if he were under the means, would be fruitful ; therefore there
might be hope of him. But those that are under the means, under the
sunshine of the gospel, under the influence of it, the Spirit working on their
hearts ; and yet they live in the sin of unfruitfulness, it makes way for
judgment. * The axe is laid to the root,' Mat. iii. 10. When men are
taught, then the instrument of vengeance is laid to the root, and down they
go if they bring not forth good fruit.

Sins of omission, when that all hath been taught, are sufficient to bring
a man to judgment. At the last judgment, ' you have not visited me in
prison, you have not relieved the poor,' &c., will be evidence enough to cast
a man into hell, Mat. xxv. 43. And the like may be said of the omission
of other duties. When a man is called to place, when he hath opportunity
to do good, ' he hath a price in his hand, and yet hath no heart to lay it
out to his power.' God hath made him a steward, and yet he is unfruit-
ful, and labours to undermine and ruin the state of others. What can
such a man look for but the judgment of God to light on him first or last"?
If not present judgment on his body, yet to be given up to hardness of
heart, and so to hell, which is worst of all.

(6.) Nay more, decay in our first love is a forerunner of judgment, when
we love not God as we were wont. In Rev. ii. 5, 'I will take away thy
candlestick, because thou hast left thy first love.' Is there not such a

VOL. VI. p

226 god's inquisition.

plenty and depth in good things, especially of the gospel, whereby our sins
are pardoned, and grace is given ? Is there not that sweetness in them
■whereby to gain our love more and more ? Is there not a necessity to
renew our peace ? "Why should we decay in our love ? The things of the
gospel are so excellent and so necessary, that when God sees them under-
valued, it is a forerunner of judgment. Let us take heed of decay in our
affections. Wlien there is no zeal for the truth, it is an ill sign.

It is a good sign for the present that God hath some blessing for us,
that now in our public meetings there is regard to religion ; and that, in the
first place, there is some zeal for the cause of God against those that would
wrong the cause of religion. We have some cause to hope in respect of
that. And let every one labour to stir up the Spirit of God, and study
how he may do and receive good, and be fruitful and warm in his affections,
considering what excellent blessings we enjoy in the gospel. What is the
glory of the kingdom we live in above popery ? Our religion that we have,
the sunshine of the gospel. Now the riches of Christ are unfolded ; we
have the key of heaven, heaven opened ; what glorious times are these !
The glory of the times is the manifestation of the gospel ; and shall we
grow in the decay of our love ? Is there not cause to grow in love to the
gospel, when God hath taken it from others and hath given it to us? Now,
idolatry is where true religion was ; and the mass is said where God was
religiously worshipped in other places and countries. Shall God so deal
with us, and shall we not be in love with that truth ? Since we have had
the truth, what peace and plenty have we had ! And if ever we lose it, it
will go with other things. If God takes away the truth, away goes our
peace and prosperity. He will not take it away alone. It came not alone,
and he will not take it away alone. Doubtless it must needs make way for
judgment, when our love to so precious a jewel as the gospel shall begin to
die and decay, when we shall begin to slight and disregard it. And so for
any particular man that hath had good things in him. If they now begin
to decay, it is an ill sign, that God is fitting him for judgment.

Well, but w'hat shall we do when judgments are coming ? We see judg-
ments are like to come, nay, are in part come. The plague of pestilence
hath seized on us already ; and then war is threatened, and that by ene-
mies that have been foiled before. Foiled enemies are dangerous enemies,
if they be proud. Now we have proud enemies that have been foiled, and
idolatrous v.'ithal, and what mercy can we look for from them ? God
fought against them for us from heaven in some measure, and they being
cruel provoked enemies, are the less likely to shew any mercy.* God is
indeed so merciful to us yet, that he hath taken us into his own hands,
rather than to give us up to the malice and fury of idolatrous enemies.
But yet those that can lay things together, and consider the times, they
shall see there is more cause of fear than is taken to heart.

Well, and in this case, what shall we do ?

1. First, In the interim between the threatening and the execution.
There are some judgments in the cloud, and the storm seems to hang over
us, and the sword of the pestilence is drawn over our heads by the destroy-
ing angel, though he hath not yet stricken us in our particular. Now in the
time between the threatening and the execution ; oh improve it, make use
of this little time; get into covenant with God; hide yourselves in the provi-
dence and promises of God; make your peace, defer it no longer.

2. And secondly. Mourn for the si77S of the time, that when any judg-

* Spain. — G.

god's inquisition. 227

ment shall come, you may be marked with those that mourn. Take heed
of the errors and sins of the times, lest, when a judgment comes, you be
swept away in the general judgments. But let us rather have our part
with those that mourn, that God may give us our lives for a prey.

3. And thirdly, Be watchfal. Practise that duty, We have the plague
to put us in mind of it, besides the threatening of dangers by enemies
abroad. If we will not watch now and stand upon our guard, when will
we ? Let us be watchful to do all the good we can, to be fruitful, to be
good stewards, to have large hearts. The time may come that we may be
stripped of all, and we know not how soon. Having but a little time, let
us do good in it ; study all opportunities in these times ; rouse up our
sluggish souls. Fear, it is a waking affection. Jacob, when his brother
Esau was ready to seize on him, * he could not sleep that night.' We
know not how soon the hand and arrow of God may strike us, besides
other judgments. Let us shake off security, and do everything we do sin-
cerely to God. We may come to God to make our account, we know not
how soon. Let us do everything as in his presence, and to him. In our
particular callings, let us be conscionable,* and careful, and fruitful. Let
us do all in our places to God, and not to the world, or to our own parti-
cular gain, but do it as those that must give account ere long to God.
Now, God threateneth us to come and give our account ; who can be
secure he shall have life for a week, or for one day ? We cannot. ' Our
times are in God's hands,' Ps. xxxi. 15. We came into the world in his
time, and we must go out in his time. But now we have less cause to
hope for long life. This is to make a right use of the judgment of God, to
be watchful in this kind.

And withal, let us be good husbands now in the interim. Between the
threatening and the execution of the judgment, let us store up comforts
from the promises of God, and store up the comforts of a good life. We
shall have more comfort of the means we have bestowed wisely than of that
we shall leave behind us. Thus if we do, come what will, we are prepared.
Many holy and heavenly men have been visited with pestilential sickness.
Hezekiah was a king, and his was a pestilential sickness ; and many holy
divines of late, and other Christians, have been swept away by the sickness
— Junius, and other rare men of excellent use in the church [h). Therefore
let us labour to get into the favour of God ; make use of our renewing our
covenant for the time to come. That is one end of fasting now, to renew
our covenants, to remake them for the time to come. And then come what
will, and welcome, life or death ; for there is a blessing hid in the most
loathsome sickness and death. If we come to heaven, it is no matter by
what way, though the body ' be sown in dishonour.' We may die of a noisome
disease, that we cannot have our friends near us, yet ' the body shall rise
again in honour,' 1 Cor. xv. 43. What matter, saith St Paul, ' if by any
means I may come to the resurrection of the dead ; ' by fair death or foul
death, it is no matter. And if so be that God makes not good his promise
of particular protection of our bodies from contagion, &c,, it is no matter.
We have a general promise ' that he will be our God.' * He is the God of
Abraham,' the God of the dead as well as of the living, Mat. xxii. 32.
He is a God that is everlasting in the covenant of grace, in life and death,
and for ever. If we be entered into the covenant of grace, it holds for
ever. And when all other promises fail, and all things in the world fail,
stick to the main promise of forgiveness of sins, ' and life everlasting.'
* That is, ' conscientious.' — G.

228 god's inquisition.

When all things in the world will fail, we must leave them shortly, wealth
and whatsoever, what a comfort is in that grand promise that God will for-
give us our sins, and give us Hfe everlasting for Christ ! Therefore, when
all things else are gone, let us wrap ourselves in the gracious promises of
Christ, and then we shall live and die with comfort.

NOTES.

(a) P. 213. — ' Therefore an ancient saith, " Ho that is good only under the cross
is never good." ' Qu. Bernard ?

(b) P. 227. — ' Junius.' The allusion to the ' plague' shews that Sibbes speaks of
Francis Du Jou or Junius of Leyden, an eminent theologian who was swept off by
the pla<me there in 1602. He is sometimes confounded with a contemporary
Baldwinus Junius, and sometimes with his own sou and namesake. There are
others of the same name more or less distinguished. G.

THE RICH POVERTY.

NOTE.

'Ricli Poverty' forms the last of the four treatises included in 'Light from
Heaven' (4to, 1638). The title-page is given below.* For general title-page see
Vol. IV. p. 490. G.

* THE

RICH POVERTY:

OR THE

POORE MANS
RICHES.

By the late Learned and Reverend Divine,

RICHARD SIBBS,

D"^. in Divinity, Master of Katharine Plall in

Cambridge, and sometimes Preacher at

GRAIES-INNE.

Alatth. 5. 3. Blessed are the poorc in spirit.

lames 2. 5. Hath not God chosen tlie poore of this world, rich

in faith ?

LONDON,

Printed by R. Badger for N. Bourne at the Royall

Exchange, and R. Harford at tlie gilt Bible in

Queenes-head Alley in Fater-Noster Row.

16 38.

THE RICH POYERTY;

OB,

THE POOE MAN'S EICHES.

1 will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and i^oor jx'ople, and they

shall trust in the name of the Lord. — Zeph. III. 12.

Before the captivity in Babylon, God sent prophets to his people, as
Jeremiah ; and among the rest Zephaniah likewise, who lived in the time
of Josiah, to forewarn and forearm them against worse times. And as the
contents of all other prophecies are for the most part these three, so of
this : they are either such expressions and prophecies as set forth the
sins of the people ; or, secondly, the judgments of God ; or, thirdly, com-
fort to the remnant, to God's people. So these be the parts of this pro-
phecy : a laying open of the sins of the time, under so good a prince as
Josiah was ; and likewise the judgments of God denounced ; and then in
this third chapter especially, here is comfort set down for the good people
that then lived. The comfort begins at the ninth verse.

This particular verse is a branch of the comfort, that however God dealt
with the world, he would be sure to have a cai*e of his own : ' I will leave
in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in
the name of the Lord.' The whole Scripture is for consolation and com-
fort. When God ' pulls down,' it is that he may build up ; when he
purgeth, it is that he may cure and heal. He is ' the father of comfort,'

2 Cor. i. 3. Whatsoever he doth, it is for comfort. Therefore he hath a
special care in his prophets and ministers and ambassadors, that those
that belong to him may be raised up with comfort, and not be over-much
dejected and cast down. But to come to the words.

' I will also leave in the midst of thee,' &c.

In the words these three general heads :

First, God's dealings with his poor church when he comes to visit the
world: ' I will leave in the midst of thee.'

Secondly, Their condition and disposition : they are ' an afflicted and
poor people.'

Thirdly, Their practice and carriage towards God : ' They shall trust in
the name of the Lord.'

232 THE RICH POVERTY ; OR,

From the first, God's dealing with his people in the worst times, we may
observe, first, that

Obs. 1. There is a difference of the people, both in regard of providence
in this world, and in regard of that love that tends to the world to come.
For God hath a more special care, as we shall see afterwards, of some,
than he hath of others ; and he loves some to eternal life, and not others :
' I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people,' refusing
others. God will leave some. He will purge away others ; as he saith in
the verse before, ' I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice
in thy pride ; and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy moun-
tain.' He will take away them, ' but I will leave in the midst of thee,' &c.
There is a difference. All are not alike, as the proverb is, as white lines
upon a white stone, that we cannot see a difference. It is not alike with
all men, for we see a difference in this world ; but not much here, because
God's government is veiled. It will appear at the last day ; and whatso-
ever appears at the last da}^ it had a ground before. There is a difference
in regard of grace and inward qualification, and in regard of the care of
God. Even as there is a difference in the creatures ; there be precious
stones and common stones ; and in plants, there be fruitful trees and
barren trees ; and as there is a difference likewise in the living creatures,
so among men there is a difference.

The next thing is, that

Obs. 2. God ivill havesome in the irorst times. He will have some in all times,
that are his, a remnant, as he saith here, ' The remnant of Israel shall do no
iniquity ; ' and as in the text, ' I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted
and poor people,' &c. God will have alway some that are his in the world.

Reason 1. For it is an article of our faith, ' We believe the holy catholic
church.' There must not be an article of faith and no object to believe.
If there be faith to believe a thing, there must be somewhat to be believed.
If I believe that at all times there shall be an ' holy catholic church,' there
must be such a church in the world, that is the object of my belief, or else
there were no foundation for that article of faith. Therefore there must
always be a church to the end of the world ; sometimes more, sometimes
fewer, even as the discovery of Christ is. From whence comes the
abundance of the Spirit? The Spirit follows the manifestation of the
knowledge of Christ, who is the head of the church. Then is the church
most glorious, when the riches of Christ are more gloriously discovered.
Those times wherein there is most discovery of Christ, and the mercy and
love of God in him, there are more ' elect' of God in those times than in
other. There will be alway a church in the world. That is the object
of our belief. What is the meaning of it ? I believe that in all times to
the end of the world there will be a company of people spread over the
world, gatLered out of the rest of mankind, whom Christ hath knit to him-
self by faith, and themselves together in a holy spirit of love, of which com-
pany I beHeve myself to be one ; therefore there must be such a company,
or else there would be faith without an object of faith, which were a great
absurdity in divinity and reason too.

Reason 2. Then again, The world shoidd not stand, were it not for a com-
pany in the ivorld that are his. For what are others ? A compan}?^ of
swearers and blasphemers, profane persons, belly-gods, ambitious bubbles,
that care for nothing but the vanities of the world. What glory hath God
by them ? What tribute do they give to God ? What credit to religion ?
They are the shame of the times. They are such as pull God's vengeance

THE POOR man's eiches. 233

upon the times and places they live in. Such is the ill disposition and
poisonful nature of men, if they have not the Spirit of God, that God would
not endure the world to stand a moment, unless there were some to with-
hold his wrath, to be objects of his love, and to stay his hand ; and when
they are all gathered, there shall be an end of this wretched and sinful
world. Some there must be while the world endures, and for their sakes
God continues the world. Those that keep God's wrath from the world are
those that are his ; and till all those be gathered the world shall stand.
There shall alway be some.

Use 1. It is a point not altogether fruitless. It yields some comfort to
know, that when we are taken hence, others shall stand up when we are
gone. The church shall not die with us. Is not that a comfort, when a
Christian yields his soul to God, to think : yet God will have a church and
people, if not amongst us, yet in some other part of the world. He will
have some that shall glorify him in this world, that shall adorn and beautify
religion, and shall for ever be glorified with him in heaven, till he have
made an end of these sinful days. It is some comfort, I say, that good-
ness shall live after us, that the gospel shall continue after us. There shall
be a posterity to the end of the world, that shall stand for the truth and
cause of God. The world was not, nor ever shall be so bad, but God hath
had, and will have, a party in the world that shall stand for him, and he
for them. Now the children of God, as they know God hath a purpose to
glorify them world without end ; so they have a desire that God may be
glorified world without end ; and from this desire comes joy, when they
think that there will be a people on earth to glorify God still when they are
taken hence : for it is a disposition wrought from God's peculiar love, to
wish that God may ever have his praise here in the world, while it is a
world, and for ever in the world to come. Therefore it is a comfort to them
to think that God will always have a church.

But these are but a few, called by Isaiah a remnant : ' a remnant
according to election,' as it is, Rom. xi. 5. A handful in comparison of
the world, yet they are a world in respect of themselves ; for they are a
world taken out of the world. But compared with the rest of mankind,
they are but as a ' few grapes after the vintage, as the gleanings after the
harvest, one of a city, and two of a tribe,' Jer. iii. 14. The prophets,
every one of them have special phrases to set out the fewness of those that
God hath a special care of. He calls them in the next verse the ' remnant
of Israel.' God will have some continually; but those are but a few that
are his. His flock is but ' a little flock.'

It is a point not mainly aimed at here ; but it is very useful.

Use 2.* Is there but a few, but a remnant in all times ? Am I one of
those ? What have I to evidence to me that I am of that little flock that is
Christ's ? "What have I in me to evidence that God hath set his stamp
upon me to be his ? that I shall not go the broad way to destruction ?
This should force such quceres to our souls. When we hear of the few that
shall be saved, we should make that use that Christ makes of that curiousf
question of the fewness of them that should be saved. ' Oh strive to enter
in at the strait gate,' Luke xiii. 24. Stand not on many or few. Make
this use of it. Strive to enter in at the strait gate. Take up and practise
the duties of religion, that are contrary to the corruption of nature, and
contrary to the times. Avoid the sins and courses of the times, and then

* In margin here, ' To examine if we be of those few.' — G.
t That is, = ' vainly inquisitive.' — G.

234 THE EICH POVERTY ; OR,

■we shall know and evidence to ourselves that we are of that few number.
Somewhat must be done to shew that we are not of those that go the broad
way. We hear that there are few that go the other way ; and indeed it
will make a man look about him, the very consideration that there are but
few that shall be saved.

Use 3. And it will make a man wondrous thankful. * Who am I, and
what is my father's house ?' 2 Sam. vii. 18. What is there in me ? What
could God see in me to single me out of the rest, out of a great number
that go the broad way to destruction, to set his love upon me ? It will
inflame the heart with thankfulness to God. It will not make a man proud
to despise others. That is pharisaical. But it will inflame the heart to be
thankful in a peculiar manner to God, and 'to single out God in a peculiar
manner to be our God, as he hath singled us out to be his. For always he
works somewhat in us, like to that he works for us. Those that God hath
singled out to be his, he will give them grace to single out him again. God
shall be my God, religion shall be my care, and that that God respects shall
be that that I will respect. Since God so respects me, shall not I love and
respect all that God respects ? And shall I not grieve when anything goes
amiss with that that God hath a care of? Certainly it will work this dis-
position, when we come to perceive, by grounded evidence, that we are of
that few company, of that remnant here spoken of, that God will leave
alway to trust in his name.

Obs. In the next place, though they be few, yet God hath a special care
of them. Why ? There is good reason ; for they are his in a peculiar
manner. A governor of an house, he cares for all his cattle, but he cares
for his children more. A man hath some care for all the lumber and trash
in his house ; he sees them useful at some time or other, but he cares more
for his jewels. If fire come, he will be sure to carry away his jewels, what-
soever become of the lumber. God's children are his after a peculiar man-
ner. Therefore he hath an answerable peculiar care of them in all times.
And indeed when they are once his, as he makes them have a peculiar care
of him, so he looks upon them as such as he hath wrought upon to be
good, and to witness for him ; that have a care to stand for him and his
honour, to own him and the cause of religion ; he will have a care of them.
Not that they have this of themselves to win his love, but he works in them
a care to witness for him ; he works in them a care to stand for him and
his glory in all times ; and therefore he will be sure to stand for them in
the worst times. He will not be beholding to any man. What we have,
we have it from him ; and then he crowns his ovrn graces after. He will
have a special care of those that are his.

This might be instanced from the beginning of the world, from the
infancy of the church to this present time. When he would consume the
old world, Noah must come into the ark. And Lot must come forth of
Sodom when it was to be destroyed ; the angel could do nothing else, Gen.
xix. 22. So he had a care for Jeremiah and Baruk, he gave them their
lives for a prey. He will have a care of his own in the worst times, for
they are sealed ; he hath set his seal upon them. Those things that are
sealed we have a special care of; now in Rev. vii. 3, there are a number
that are sealed, sealed inwardly by the Spirit of God, they are marked out
for God ; they are a marked, sealed number, all those that God will have
a special care of. As in Ezek. ix. 4, those that were marked in the fore-
head, they were looked unto and cared for before the destruction came.
So in Mai. iii. 17, God had jewels that he saith he would gather. When

THE POOR MAN S EICHES.

235

he brings a general destruction, he will be sure to gather his jewels; his
first care is of them. ' A book of remembrance was written for them.'
He hath a book of providence to write their names in. He hath their limbs,
all the parts of them written ; not a hair of them can miscarry : their tears,
their steps, their days are numbered. ' My times are in thy hands,' saith
David, Ps, xxxi. 15. All things are numbered exactly of those that belong
to God. He hath a care of them and all theirs to a hair ; as our Saviour
Christ saith, they shall not lose so much as a hair of their heads. God
hath an exact care of his remnant at all times.

Obj. But you will say. Sometimes it falls out otherwise.

Ans. Indeed, so it doth, for sometimes God's children are taken away in
common judgments, perhaps for too much correspondency with the sins of
the times ; therefore they are wrapped in the destruction of the times.
But yet there is a main difierence between them. Jonathan and Saul died
by the sword, both of them ; Josiah and others died in the field. But
there is a main difference. Jonathan was a good man ; Saul, for aught
the Scripture saith of him, we have no ground to judge charitably of him,
but leave him to his judge. But sure it is in general, though the same
things befall good and bad outwardly, yet there is a difference between
Lazarus and Dives when they die. Dives goes to his place, and Lazarus
to heaven. But for the most part this is true : in regard of the body of
the church (though, some few members, God hath hidden ways to bring
them to heaven and happiness ; but for the body of his church and dear
children), ' he will give them their lives for a prey,' Jer. xxi. 9. He will
have a special care of them and be a sanctuary to them. Nay, so far he
will do it, that the world shall know that he hath a special care of them in
the world ; as it is in the psalm, the heathen shall say, ' God hath done
great things for them,' Ps. cxxvi. 2. Men that have no religion shall say,
Certainly God doth great things for these men. Though he suffer them to
be carried captive and to be in affliction, yet in that very affliction shall be
the glory of the church, in that very bondage and abasement. Was the
church ever more glorious than in Babylon, when Daniel was there, and
the ' three young men ' were put into the fire ? The glory of the church
ofttimes is in outward abasement. The world shall see that God hath a
special care of them more than of others. God so magnifies himself, and
is so marvellous to his church and children, to do good to them sometimes,
to the envy of the enemies, and admiration of all the world that take notice
of them, as at the return from the captivity ; and the like shall be at the
conversion of the Jews.

Use. The use of it may be, to comfort its against evil times, against the time
to come. * Let us cast our care upon God ; he will care for us,' 1 Pet.
V. 7. He will be with us and stand by us ; he will never forsake us in the
worst times. Nay, his fashion is to deal with his children as becometh his
infinite wisdom, that they shall find most comfort and sweetest communion
with him in the hardest times. Therefore let us fear nothing that shall
befall us with slavish fear, let us fear nothing whatsoever in this world,
as long as we are in covenant with God, come what will. It is a great
honour to God to trust him with all for the time to come. Let us do
our duty, and not be afraid of this or that, as long, I say, as we have
God in covenant with us, who is all-sufiicient. What should we be afraid
of? ' Can a mother forget her child?' saith the prophet ; ' If she should,
yet will I not forget thee ; thou art written on the palms of my hands,' Isa.
xlix. 16. Those things that are in the palms of our hands we have ever

236

THE RICH POVERTY ; OR,

in our eye. God hath us in his eye. He sets his children before him
alway. How can he forget them ? How can Christ forget his church ?
He carries them in his breast, as the high priest had the names of the
twelve tribes on his breast in twelve precious stones, when he went into
the holy of hohes. Christ carries our names in his heart ; how can he
forget us then ? Let kingdoms dash one against another, and let the world
tumble upon heaps ; let there be what confusion of states there will, God
certainly will have a care of his jewels. ' I will leave,' in spite of all the
world, ' in the midst of thee, an afflicted and poor people,' &c.

Quest. You will say. When is this performed ?

Ans. ' In that day,' saith he in the verse before my text. You must
know it is the Scripture's fashion, when it saith, ' In that day,' to take it
indefinitely, not to tie it to a certain day ; though there is a certain ?day
wherein there shall be an accomplishment of all prophecies and a perform-
ance of all promises, that is, at the last day. In the mean time, there is a
gradual performance of promises, and the accomplishment of them is in
several knots and points of time, so much as shall give content to God's
children, yet always leading to a further and further performance. As,
for example, God shewed mercy to these Israelites when they were in cap-
tivity. He brought them home again. They were a poor and afflicted
people, and were much bettered by their abasement. There was a degree
of performance then. And then there was a degree of performance in
Christ's time, when he joined the Gentiles to them, and both made one
church. There will be a more glorious performance at the conversion of
the Jews, when God shall make his people ' trust in the name of the Lord,'
and the Gentiles shall come in and join with them, and they with the Gen-
tiles. But that which follows in the verse after, ver. 13, ' The remnant shall
do none iniquity, nor speak lies ; a deceitful tongue shall not be found in
their mouth,' these things shall have their time, when the people shall
be more thoroughly purged than ever they were ; and certainly these glorious
portions of Scripture cannot have performance but in such days as are to
come. But the accomphshment of all shall be at the day of judgment.
Indeed, in the mean time, as I say, there is a comfortable performance,
leaving us in expectation of further and further still ; because, while we live
here, we are in a life of hope and expectation, and always we are under
somewhat unperformed. So much for that.

I come now to the state and condition of these people :

* An afflicted and poor people.'

This is their state and condition, wherein is implied also their disposition.
Their state is, they are ' an afflicted and poor people.' So it is answerable
to the original, ' an afflicted and impoverished people,' a weakened people.
However, God hath a special care of his church in this world. Yet it is
with exception of some crosses and afflictions, ' You shall have an hundred-
fold,' saith Christ, ' in this life ;' but ' with tribulations and afflictions;' that
must come in. But yet, notwithstanding, here is a blessing in this : for
howsoever he leave them ' an afflicted and poor people,' yet he leaves them
a people ; and though they be a people afflicted and poor, yet they are a
people that are rich in God. They shall ' trust in the name of the Lord ;'
of which I shall speak afterward. In that he calls them ' an afflicted and
poor people,' hence we see, in the first place, that,

Doct. The state of GocVs church and children in this world, for the most
part, is to be afflicted and poor in their outward condition.

THE POOR man's RICHES. 237

I say, for the most part, we must not make it a general rule. It is a
point rather to comfort us when it is so, than that it is alway so with the
church. For howsoever they are always in some respects afllicted, they
have alway something to abase them ; yet the times of the church are
sometimes more glorious in the eyes of the world. They have the upper
hand of the world sometimes. And sometimes again the children of God.
they walk in the abundance of the comforts of the Holy Ghost, and increase
and multiply, as it is in Acts ix. 31. When Saul was converted to be Paul,
' the church increased and grew, and went on in the fear of the Lord, and
the comforts of the Holy Ghost.' There be good days and times for the
church sometimes ; but for the most part in this world, God's church and
children are under some cloud. I will not enter into the common-place of
it, but only touch it in a word or two.

Reason 1. God will have it so, because it is Jit the body should be con-
formable to the head. You know our blessed Saviour, when he wrought our
salvation, he wrought it in a state of abasement, and we ' in working out
that salvation,' in going to that salvation that he hath wrought for us, we
must go to it, for the most part, in a state of abasement in one kind or
other ; for we are chosen to be conformable to our head, and we are as well
chosen to our portion in afflictions as to grace and glory. God hath set us
apart to bear such a share and portion of troubles in this world, to suffer as
well as to do. ' From my youth up,' saith the church, ' they have afflicted
me; the ploughers have ploughed upon my back and make long furrows,'
Ps. cxxix. 3 ; that is, from the infancy of the church, in all the growth of
it, this hath been the state of the church, for the most part, to be afflicted
and poor.

Reason 2. And indeed, if we look to ourselves, by reason of the remainder
of our corruptions, it is needful it should be so. God in wisdom sees it fit
it should be so, that we should be afflicted and poor, because he sees that
we can hardly digest any flourishing condition in this world. It is as
strong waters to a weak stomach. However strong waters intoxicate them
not, to make them drunk, yet they weaken the brain. So, however a good
condition in the world doth not altogether besot men, yet it weakens them
without a great measure of faith, and makes them forget God, and the con-
dition of worldly things, how empty and vain they are ; and forget them-
selves and their own mortality ; and forget others, what respect is due to
them, as if the world were made only for them to toss and tumble in at
their pleasure, to have all at their will, as if other men were scarce-:^ men
to them. You see when men are trusted with great matters, they deal with
other men as if they were not men, as if all were made for their pleasure.
This is the nature of man in great eminency. It sets up its own desire for
a ' god,' as if all other were beasts, and base, and nothing. It is a pitiful
thing to consider what our nature is in this kind. Nay, take the best.
Hezekiah, in his prosperity, he would needs shew his treasures to the king
of Babylon, a fair booty for him. You know what it cost him afterward.
Naturally we are prone to outward carnal excellency, too, too much. God
knows it well enough. David would be numbering the people, that he
might be conceited what a goodly number he had to fight against his ene-
mies. God punished him you see in that kind. He took away that people
that he made his confidence. God deals thus with his children in this
world, because he sees a disposition in them that cannot digest, and manage,

*■ That is, ' scarcely ' not = rare. — G.

288 THE KICH POVERTY ; OR,

and overcome prosperity. They cannot command it as they should do, but
are slaves to their own lusts, though they have a good measure of grace.
We are prone to surfeit of the things of this life, and God is forced ; as it
is in Ps. cxix. 75, ' of very faithfulness thou hast corrected me.' God, of
very faithfulness, because he will be true to our souls and save them, he
is forced to diet us and to keep us short of the things of this life ; to take
away matter of pride and matter of conceitedness in carnal excellencies ; to
make us know ourselves, and him, and the world, what it is ; the vanity
of the world and worldly things. You see, then, God hath some cause to
do it.

Use. And ?(■(? may justify God when he any way abaseth us in this ivorld.
He knows what he hath to do with us : let us leave that to him, so he save
our souls, and sanctify them, and delight in us to heaven and happiness.
If his pleasure be to diet us in this world, in regard of riches and greatness,
that he do not answer our desires, but keep us under hatches, let us leave
it to his will. He knows what to do with us, as the physician knows better
what concerns the sick than the sick doth. Therefore, let us take in good
part the wise dispensation of God.

But why doth he join ' afflicted and poor' together ? Because poverty
is affliction, and because affliction goes with poverty ? Poverty brings
affliction. It brings abasement with it, and it is an affliction itself. For
the poor man is trod on at all hands. Men go over the hedge where it is
lowest. It is an affliction, and it goes with affliction. Therefore the apostle
St Paul, Philip, iv. 12, he joins them together : * I have learned to want
and to be abased.' Why ? Because a man that is in want in the world
is usually abased. Every man scorns him that is in want. They look
haughty and high over a man that hath any use of them. So that affliction
and poverty usually go together.

Those that God doth abase in this kind, let them consider that it is no
otherwise with them than it hath been with God's people before. And let
them labour for true riches : take advantage from their outward estate to
be rich in a better way.

In the next place, we may observe hence, that

Doct. God sanctifies outward afiiiction and poverty, to help inward poverty
of spirit.

Poverty in outward condition helps poverty in the imyard disposition.
In their state and condition is implied their disposition : poor for condition,
and likewise in inward disposition, for that is implied here. The prophet
doth not mean he will leave poor people that shall only be poor, for we see
a world of poor and proud. A man, as he goes along in the streets, shall
hear a company of poor that are the greatest rebels in the world against
God ; that blaspheme and swear, that rail against magistrates and gover-
nors. They are the most unbroken people in the world, the poorest and
beggarliest, the refuse of mankind. As they are in condition, so they are
in disposition. The Scripture speaks here of God's poor, not of the devil's
poor, such as are poor every way, outwardly anid inwardly, and have their
poverty as a just punishment of their wicked lives, and continue in that
wicked life, having it not sanctified to them to make them desire better
riches. Doth God esteem such poor ? No. But such poor and afflicted
as, together with the meanness of their outward condition, have it sanctified
to them ; so as they grow to be low and poor in their own esteem of them-
selves, they grow to inward poverty of spirit, and so to seek to God, to seek
for better riches, * to be rich in faith,' as the Scripture speaks, James ii. 5 ;

THE POOR man's RICHES. 239

ei3pecially such, and only such, are here meant. So then, mark the point
here, that

God sanctifies affliction and poverty for the inivard good of the souls of his
children.

Reason 1. This is the reason of it : outward poverty and affliction takes
away the fuel that feeds pride, that is an opposite to spiritual poverty and
humility, and sight of our wants. That which pride feeds upon, it is some
outward thing, some outward excellency, that the flesh takes occasion by to
swell, to over-ween itself, and to overlook all others. Now, when the fuel
is taken away, the fire goes out. When the fodder and nourishment is
taken away, those wanton steeds, you know, that grew fierce with pamper-
ing, they grow more tractable. So it is with the nature of man. Take
away that that makes him fierce, and then, when his fierce and high con-
ceits are taken away, he will be tame. Take away that that feeds his
carnal disposition, and he grows tractable and gentle. Thus then, affliction
and poverty, outward in our condition, it helps to inward poverty of spirit
and disposition ; for it takes away that which inflames the fixncy of a carnal
man. A carnal man thinks himself as great and as good as he hath pos-
sessions of the things of this life ; and the devil enlargeth his conceit more
upon the imagination, to think these things to be a great deal greater than
they are. We come afterward, by experience, to see them nothing but
vanity. But this is in man without grace : we are pi'one, as I said, to
surfeit of them. They are too strong for us to digest and overcome ; and
therefore God takes them away, that he may help the inward disposition of
our souls.

Afflictions and poverty sanctified, they have a power to bring us to God,
and to keep us in and to recover us when we are fallen. They bring us in,
as we see in Manasseh and in the prodigal son. Affliction and poverty
they brought him to know himself. They brought him home. He was
not himself before. They brought him to inward poverty. When he
could not be satisfied so much as with husks abroad, it was time for him
to look home again. So when we are in the state of gi-ace, it keeps and
pales us in : ' God hedgeth us in with thorns,' Hosea ii. 6, that we may
not run out. And then, if we fall, it recovers us, and fetcheth us in again,
by embittering sinful courses to us. We see, then, affliction and poverty
is sanctified to God's children, to work an inward sight of their spiritual
wants.

Use 1. Take notice, hence, of the poison and sinfulness of our corrupt
nature, that defiles itself in the blessings of God ; so that God cannot
otherwise fit us for grace, but by stripping of us of those things that are
good in themselves. This should abase us very much, considering that
those things that should be rises to us, to raise us up to God, that should
be glasses to see the love of God in, our nature useth them as clouds to
keep God from us, and to fasten and fix upon the things themselves ; so
that there is no other remedy, but God must strip us naked of them. This
consideration should humble us.

Use 2. And let us make this use of it : let us know, when any abasement
is sanctified to us, it comes from God's love. If we find any affliction make
us inwardly more humble and tractable, and more pliable, certainly it comes
from love, and is directed to our good ; and therefore it is in love, because
it is directed to our good. For it is well taken away in earthly things, that
is supplied in heavenly and spiritual. What if God takes away such out-
ward honours, and respects, and riches, if God make it up in gi'aces that

240 THE EICH POVERTY ; OE,

are eternal, that make us truly and inwardly good, which all the outward
things in the world cannot do ! All the empires in the world cannot make
a man an honest man. They may make him worse ; they may be snares
to make him forget God and himself ; they may be a means of his damna-
tion, without wondrous care. What if God take away a great deal of these
things, and make them up in favours of a higher kind ! Therefore, if we
find God sanctify any outward abasement for the inward good of our souls,
let us bless him for it, and take it in good part as an evidence of his love ;
for God thus deals with his children. He sanctifies their outward abase-
ments for their inward good, to draw them nearer to himself.

Use 3. Therefore, those that are weak in their condition, for a man may
be poor in regard of his condition, though not inwardly poor, those that
are broken in their condition outwardly, they may know whether it be in
love or no, if they find tins condition sanctified to a better disposition. For
as all things in general work to the best ' to them that love God,' Eom.
viii. 28, so this is one : especial affliction and poverty work for good to
them that love God. God sanctifies it to them for that end.

Therefore we should examine when we are under any cross, see how it
works upon us, whether b}^ it we are humbled or no, whether we join with
God or no ; for those that belong to God have the grace of the Spirit to
join with him in the work. When he afflicts them, they labour to afflict
themselves ; when he goes to humble them outwardly, they humble them-
selves ; when he goes about to make them poor, to wean them from the
love of the world, they wean themselves and join with God. As we see
the physician by his art and skill, when he sees nature working away, then
he will help nature till the cure be wrought ; so God gives his Spirit to
those that are his, to work with him. When God goes about to take them
down, they will take down themselves too, and so they grow inwardly
better, together with their outward abasement.

Those therefore that 'swell, and storm, and murmur, and rage, what do
they get but more stripes ! They get not out of trouble by it, but if they
belong to God, they get stripes upon stripes. What doth the horse get at
last by shaking ofi'his rider that is skilful ? More spurring and more strokes.
So when men are under God's hand, afflicted any way, and labour not to
make a good use of it, but will pull the rod out of God's hand and swell
and pine, if they belong to God they get more stripes. Therefore let us
kiss the rod, and the hand that holds it. God is about a good work, let
him alone ; desire him rather to sanctify the visitation and abasement than
remove it. A gracious heart desires rather the sanctification than the
removal.

Use 3. Again, Hence we learn not to ' despise the brother of low degree,''
James i. 9, nor we should ' not have the faith of Christ in respect of per-
sons,' James ii. 9. We should not take scandal at the church, that it is
usually in a mean condition in this world, for the church is alway rich in
another kind of riches. The church is rich in reversion. It hath heaven
and happiness, and the church is rich in bills and promises. The church
is rich in an apparent pledge, that is worth all the world besides ; that is,
Christ. * If he have given us his Son, will he not with him give us all
things else ? ' Rom. viii. 32. The church is rich in this world indeed, * for
all things are yours, and you are Christ's,' 1 Cor. iii. 23, Christ carries
riches for the church, and dispenseth them to the church as occasion serves.
Indeed, Christ's riches are the church's riches. The church cannot be poor
if Christ be rich. It is only a medicinal poverty. It is God's dispensation

THE POOR MAN S EICHES.

241

to fit them for better riches. As a ^vise physician he purgeth a foul body,
till he bring it almost to skin and bone ; but why ? That having made it
poor, there may be a spring of better blood and spirits.

Let us take no offence therefore at God's dispensation, either towards
others or ourselves, if we find him by his Holy Spirit sanctifying^that out-
ward condition to a holy inward bent and disposition of soul to God-ward.
It is a happy afliiction and poverty and abasement, whatsoever it be that
draws us nearer to God, in whom we have more supply than we can want
in the world. God never takes away anything from his children in this
world, but he gives them more in better things. That is always his course.
' The poor receive the gospel,' Mat. xi. 5. The gospel is preached to them,
and they receive it ; those that by their outward abasements are brought
to a sight of their spiritual wants, and thereupon to hunger after Christ.

Again, In that this outward poverty helps to inward poverty oi the soul,
outward atHictions help the inward disposition ; hence we see likewise this
truth that

Obs. Providence is serviceable to jyredestination and election.

God in election hath a purpose to call us out of the world, to save our
souls. Providence, that is a general government of all things in the world.
Election is in order to salvation ; he hath chosen us to a supernatural end,
and fits us for it by calling and sanctification. Now how doth providence
serve the decree of election? Thus; whom God purposeth to save, to
bring to an end above nature, he directs providence, so that all things shall
serve for that end ; therefore he encourageth them with outward things, or
takes outward things from them in his providence, as may serve his purpose
in election to save their souls. He hath a purpose to _save them, there-
fore providence works all things for their good, Rom. viii. 28. All thmgs,
by the overruling providence of God, are serviceable to a higher degree of
love that God bears to his children, to serve his purpose to bring them to
heaven. Thereupon comes the dispensation of riches or poverty, honour or
abasement. He takes liberty for outward things concerning this life, to give
or take them as they may serve the spiritual and best good of his children.

Use. Therefore God's children, when they see God intends their good
in taking away the things of this life, in letting them blood, as it were, for
their health, tJieij sJwuld bless God as ivellfor taking as for giving, as Job
did. Job i. 21. And there is as great mercy and love hid in taking away
blessings as in conveying of them. * I will leave an afflicted and poor
people.' In the original it is poor and mild and gentle {a). Poverty of
estate, and poverty of spirit, the disposition of soul, come almost in one
word, and indeed in God's children they are joined together. For he
sanctifies all dispensations and carriages of himself towards them. When
God hath a purpose to save a man, everything shall help him homeward.
And it is not a better outward argument to know a man's state in grace,
than to see how the carriage of things serve God's purpose to do good to
his soul, when we ourselves are bettered in our inward man by whatsoever
befalls us. God complains of the Jews ; they were as ' reprobate silver,'
Jer. vi. 30, because he had melted them, and they were never a whit the
better ; they were like dross consumed in the melting. God's children are
as gold refined. Those that find themselves refined and bettered, it is an
evidence that they are God's ; because there is a providence serving their
spiritual good, directing all things to that end.

But from their condition, we come to the disposition implied, inward
and spiritual poverty.

VOL. VI. Q

242

THE RICH POVERTY ; OR,

1. Now this poverty is not a mere tvant of grace. To be poor in spirit is
not to be poor of that spirit, or to be of a poor spirit. To be of a poor
spirit is to have no goodness, no worth at alj, but to be of a dejected, base
mind. God's children are not so. There are none more courageous than
they, when they are called to it. It is not this poverty of spirit to have no
goodness at all. But to be ' poor in spirit,' is a state and disposition of
soul, that hath some goodness, wherein they see a want of farther goodness.
They have so much goodness and worth, as to see an unworthiness in them-
selves, and a greater worthiness out of themselves. They are sensible of their
own want, and see they have no means of supply in themselves ; and they see
an all-sufficiency out of themselves, in God, in Christ ; they see a necessity
of dependence for supply out of themselves, in their whole condition till they
come to heaven. In a word, this poverty is a sight of our own nothingness
in ourselves, and besides that, our own inability, and a sight of sufficiency
out of ourselves, and a desire of it ; and likewise a hope of supply from thence,
which hope carries us to endeavour and to waiting till we have supply.

2. This will better appear, if we distinguish of this poverty in spirit by
the two degrees of it. There is a poverty of spirit before tee are in the state
of grace, before we are in Christ ; and a poverty after.

The poverty before we are in the state of grace, is, when God by his
Spirit, together with his word and work of correction, doth open the eyes
of our souls to see what we are by nature, what we are in ourselves. It is
a work of God's convincing Spirit, to give us a true view into our own con-
dition, and with the sight to work a sense ; and from a sight and sense
and thorough conviction, comes a wondrous abasement, and a desire to be
otherwise than we are. There is some hope in spiritual poverty in God's
children before their conversion, which stirs them up to look upon Christ,
and to the mercy of God in Christ ; and this stirs them up to beg, and to
use all means ; and at length God is gracious and answers all the desires of
their souls. This is before they were in grace ; for before a Christian is a
sound Christian, he must be driven out of himself. Naturally we are prone
to cleave to something, either out of ourselves or in ourselves, and we must
be fired out by a sight and sense of the misery we are in.

We see God hath taken this course alway in Scripture. This course he
took with Adam. He cites him, arraigns him, condemns him. He lets
him see what a miserable creature he was ; as no man on earth was ever
so miserable, till he felt the sweetness of the promised seed. He that
had been in so great happiness as he was, to have his conscience so galled
as his was afterward, to feel such misery for the present as he did, he
must needs be very miserable, as indeed he was the most miserable man
that ever was since hisltime. It is the greatest unhappiness for a man to
have been happy ; for his former happiness makes his present unhappiness
more sensible.* When God had prepared him thoroughly, then he raised
him up with the promised seed. God deals as he dealt with Elijah ; first,
he casts him down with earthquakes and storms, and then he comes in a
stiller voice. It is for that end that John Baptist comes before Christ, to
level all, to cast down the ' mountains and fill up the valleys ;' Luke iii. 5,
for all must be laid flat to Christ. We must lay ourselves at his feet, and
be content to be disposed of by him, before we know what belongs to being
in Christ. There must be poverty of spirit antecedent therefore. We see
this lively set out in the prodigal son, that while he had anything in the
world to content him, he never looks homeward ; but when he saw such an
* This idea is largely dwelt upon in Pascal's ' Thoughts.'— Ed,

THE POOR man's RICHES. 243

emptiness in all things lie met with, that he could not be satisfied with
husks, then he began to think of going home, and that there was some
hope he had a father that would receive him. I will be short in this,
because the other is mainly intended.

If we would know and discern by some evidences whether we have been
poor in spirit, in this preparative poverty or no,

1. Let us consider ivhat ive have judged of our condition hj nature ; whether
ever we have been convinced of the ill condition we are in ; for if there be
not conviction of sin, there will not be conviction of righteousness, as you
have it, John xvi. 8. There are three works of the Spirit, ' to convince of
sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,' of spiritual government. The
Spirit, before it convinceth us that we have the righteousness of Christ, and
convinceth us of the necessity of government and holy life in Christ, which
is called there judgment, he convinceth of sin, which is an antecedent work.
Let us examine ourselves whether the Spirit have had such a work or no.

2. Where this conviction and poverty is, a man sees an emptiness and
vanity in all things in the icorld ivhatsoever, but in Christ.

3. And there is a desire of the grace andfavonr of God above all things.
Ask a poor man what he would have ; he would have that that may supply
his poverty and want. Ask a man that is spiritually poor before he be in
Christ ; what would you have ? Oh, mercy and pardon. Ofier him any-
thing else in the world, it contents him not. But that will content him,
the sense and persuasion of God's love and mercy in Christ Jesus.

4. Where this poverty of spirit is, there will be a wondrous earnestness
after pardon and mercy, and after grace. To be in another condition a man
will labour, even as for life. If you come to a poor man that labours for
his living, and ask him. Why do you labour so ? he will wonder at your
idle question. I may starve else, he will say. A man that is spiritually poor,
and sees what a state he is in, he labours in the use of means to have an
inward sense of God's love, to find some beginnings of the new creature,
to find a change, to be otherwise than he is ; he sees he must perish else.
There is a prizing and estimation in him of mercy and pardon above all
things in the world, and a making after it.

5. It is alway joined likewise tvith a wondrotis abasing of himself. He
thinks himself not worth the ground he goes on, till God hath mercy on
him in Jesus Christ. This is not so sensible in those that are brought up
in the church, or that have religious thoughts put into them continually in
both kinds ; both concerning their own estate by nature, and withal con-
cerning grace and mercy in Christ. Therefore grace is instilled into them
by little and little, and the change is not so sensible. But where the conver-
sion is anything sudden, from an ill course of life to a better, God works such
a poverty of spirit before he bring a man to Christ. In Mat. v. 3, it is the
beginning of all happiness, the blessedness that leads to the rest, ' Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' And indeed,
those that are poor in spirit are blessed, though they have not yet the
sense of God's love so much as they desire ; for this draws on all the rest,
as I shall shew afterwards. To be poor in spirit therefore, is to see that
we have no good in ourselves ; that we are beggars and bankrupts, and have
no means to pay or satisfy ; and this stirs up desire and the use of means,
and all the qualifications that follow there, ' hungering and thirsting after
righteousness, mourning, and meekness.' For this will follow. A man
that is poor in spirit, say what you will to him, he is so tractable and meek,
let God do what he will with him so he give him grace ; if he will cast him

244 THE KICH POVERTY ; OR,

down, so be it. * What shall we do to be saved ?' Acts xvi. 30, implying
a pliableness to take any course ; he is willing to do or to suffer anything.
And indeed there must be such a poverty of spirit, before we can believe
in Christ, whereby we may be convinced of our debts and of our unability
to pay those debts, and our misery ; that we are in danger to be cast into
eternal bondage for them.

1. There must be this before ; for else,

(1.) We will never repair to Christ nor God's mercy in him. * The full
stomach despiseth an honey comb,' Prov. xxvii. 7. "We will not relish Christ,
nor value him as we should.

(2.) Then again, without this, ive uill not be thanlifnl to God as we should
he. Who is thankful to God but he that sees before what need he stands
in of mercy and of every drop of the blood of Christ ?

(3.) And then we will not be fruitful ; for who is so fruitful a Christian
as he that is thankful ? And this depends upon the other. A Christian
that was never truly cast down and laid low by the spirit of bondage, he is
a barren Christian. The other having tasted of the love of God in Christ,
the very ' love of Christ constrains him,' 2 Cor. v. 14, and he studies to
be ' abundant in the work of the Lord,' 1 Cor. xv. 68, as St Paul saith,
and every way to ' shew forth the virtues of him that hath called him out
of darkness into marvellous light,' 1 Peter ii. 9.

(4.) Again, this is the ground, when men are not sufficiently humbled
before, that they fall away dangerously. It is the ground of apostasy, be-
cause they did not feel the smart of sin. He that hath smarted for his
estate before, and knows what it is to be in such a condition, he will be loath
ever to come into the prison again. Therefore the ground of careful walk-
ing is a sense of our unworthiness and misery. The more we are convinced
of this, the more careful and watchful we will be, that we never come into
that cursed condition again.

(5.) And indeed it is an error in the foundation which is not mended in
the fabric, as we say, when there is an error in poverty of spirit at the first,
when the work of humiliation is not kindly wrought ; hence is the defect
in all the whole carriage of a Christian. The foundation of God's building
lies low ; he digs deep. God lays his foundation ofttimes as low as hell
itself in a manner ; he brings his children to see that that he means they
shall never feel, to see his wrath against sin, that so he may build upon
this foundation. For Christianity it is an excellent frame ; it is a frame
for eternity, a building for ever. Therefore it must have a sure founda-
tion, which must be laid in humiliation and poverty of spirit. An error in
the first digestion is not amended in the second ; if that be not good, the
rest are naught. If there be not sound humiliation, nothing will be sound
afterward. Therefore we should desire that God by his Spirit would help
us more and more to know what we are in ourselves, that we may get to be
what we are in Christ.

2. But there is a continual frame and disposition of soul, which is a
poverty in spirit that accompanies God's children all the days of their life till
they be in heaven, till they enjoy that riches that is laid up there for them ;
and that is especially here meant. And indeed it is an ingredient into all
the passages of salvation.

(1.) For in justification there must he a poverty of spirit, to make us see
that there is no righteousness in ourselves, or that can come from us, that
is able to stand against the law and against the justice of God ; all is defiled
and spotted and unanswerable. And upon this poverty and apprehension

THE POOR man's RICHES. 245

of what is defective in ourselves, comes an admiration of that righteousness
of Grod in Christ— for it is of God's devising, and of God's approving, and
of God's working, Christ being God and man— to force us^ every day to
renew our right in the righteousness of Christ, and to be ' found in hini.'
There is such a poverty of spirit as to account all ' loss, and dross,' Phil,
iii. 8, and nothing ; to be willing to part with all to be found in Christ,
' not having our own righteousness, but that which is of God in Christ,' as
Paul divinely speaks, ver. 9. So it is necessary in that main_ passage, of
justification, to be ' poor in spirit ;' that is, to see a defect in our own
righteousness, to stand opposite to God's justice, who is 'a consuming
fire.' It is requisite in regard of our daily living by faith in justification.

(2.) In the whole course of sanctification there must of necessity be
poverty of spirit ; that is, a sense that we have no sanctifying grace of our-
selves, but we must fetch it from the fulness of Christ, whose fulness is for
us : 'of his fulness we receive grace for grace,' John i. 16.

The ground of this is, that now in the covenant of grace all is of grace,
both in justification and sanctification ; all is of grace, nothing but grace.
God hath set himself to get the glory of his free grace and mercy now in
Jesus Christ. Therefore as our salvation is wrought out of us altogether
by our surety, the ' second Adam,' Christ ; so our righteousness is alto-
gether out of ourselves, whereby we appear righteous before God. It is
his, and given to us by marriage ; being one with him, his righteousness
is ours. And likewise in him we have the principle of all grace. He is
the principle of our life, the root and foundation of spiritual life and sanc-
tification : 'Without me you can do nothing,' John xv._ 5. So that in
Christ we have all that concerns our spiritual life in sanctification and jus-
tification, because it is a state of grace. Adam had it in himself. Though
God at the first clothed him with his image, yet notwithstanding he had
not such a necessity as we have to go to Christ for all ; but now in the
' second Adam,' Christ, we must fetch grace for everything from him.
Therefore there must be poverty in regard of our knowledge — we have no
spiritual knowledge of ourselves — and poverty in regard of our afi^ections.
We have no joy, no peace, no comfort of ourselves, no delight in good
things, nor no strength to them ; we have all from Christ. ' By grace,'
saith the apostle, ' I am what I am,' 1 Cor. xv. 10 ; as if grace had given
him his being, his form, as we say. Indeed, so it doth ; grace gives a
Christian his form and being, his work and his working, for all working is
from the inward being and form of things. By grace we are what we are
in justification, and work what we work in sanctification. It is by what
we have freely from Christ. Therefore in that respect there must be
poverty of spirit.

Nay, I say more ; in every action when we are in the state of grace, and
have had the beginnings of the new creature in us, there needs poverty of
spirit, in regard of our own inability to perform every action. For even
as it is in our form— the life and soul, there is need of it in every moving
and stirring— so there is a need of the spirit of grace, which is as the form
and life and being of a Christian, to every holy action. ' In him we live,
and move, and have our being,' saith the apostle, Actsxvii. 28. _ ' In him,'
that is, in ' God reconciled to Christ,' we have not only our being, that is,
our form, but in him we ' live and move' to every particular act. We are
no wiser in particular things than God makes us on the sudden ; the wisest
man will be a fool if God leave him to his own wit. We are no stronger
i n every particular act that needs strength than God supplies us with spin-

246 THE RICH POVERTY ; OR,

tual strength. We are no holier than God by his Spirit shines on us, and
raises our souls in particular actions. So that it is not only necessary that
we have grace at the first to make us Christians, but we must have a per-
petual regiment * of the Spirit, from whence we must have an influence to
every particular act. Though we have grace, yet we cannot bring forth
that grace to act without new grace. Even as trees, though they be fitted
to bear fruit, as the vine, &c., yet without the influence of the heavens
they cannot put forth that fitness in fruits ; so though we be fitted by the
Spirit of God, yet we cannot put it forth to particular acts when occasion
serves, without the influence of Heaven to promote and further that grace ,-.
and applying our spirits to every holy action by removing the impediments
that would hinder it, adding new supply and strength to help grace. If
the temptations be too strong, as sometimes they are, former grace will not
serve, without a new supply of strength. As he that may carry a lesser
burden cannot carry a greater without new strength, so in every tempta-
tion there is required more strength than the former; and in every new-
action there is required not only a continuance of grace, but a fresh supply
of stronger grace.

And for want of this, the best of God's saints have fallen foully. Though
they have had grace in them, yet, notwithstanding, the Spirit had left them
to themselves in regard of new supply, because they have been conceited ;
they have not been poor enough in spirit. As Peter, he was conceited of
his own strength : ' Though all men forsake thee, yet I will not,' Mat.
xxvi. 33. This conceit moved God in mercy, as well as in justice, to leave
him to himself, that by his fall he might learn to stand another time, and
not trust his own strength. The best of us all, I say, when there is any-
thing to be done, we had need of a fresh influence of grace, and a fresh
light to shine upon us.

It should force perpetual poverty of spirit, to see the want that is in
ourselves, and the supply that is out of ourselves, and to make use of that
by going out of ourselves, and making towards him in whom is all our
supply. In all our communion we have with God, which is the ha,ppiness
of our estates, this frame and disposition of soul, to be poor in spirit, it is
necessary in every act. Even in our very prayers for grace, we are so void
of it, that we want ability to call for what we want. We must have that
from the Spirit, not only grace, but that disposition of soul which carries
us to God. A spirit fitting us to pray, that must be also given us ; we
know not what to call for. We of ourselves are so poor, that we not only
want grace and ability to action, but we have not ability to ask ; but God's
Spirit must dictate our prayers, and give us motions, and make us sensible
of our wants, and must enable our faith to cherish those graces, and make
us go out of ourselves even in our very prayers. What a state is this,
then ! Had we not need to be ' poor in spirit ' all our lifetime, that have
not so much as ability to go out of ourselves for supply from another, but
that must come from Christ too ? As St Augustine, who was a great
advancer of the grace of God, and an abaser of man ; he had indeed St
Paul's spirit, saith he, ' We should boast and glory of nothing, because
nothing is ours ' (h). We have need of this poverty of spirit in the whole
tenure of our Christian life.

Again, in the actions of this life, how pitifully do we miscarry, because we
think we have witf and strength enough, and set upon things in our own
wit and strength, we speed and have success answerable. Where the
* That is, ' government.' — G. f That is, ' wisdom. — G.

THE POOK man's RICHES. 247

beginning is confidence, the end is shame, of any business even of this life.
What is the reason that ofttimes the great and weighty business of this life
have not answerable success ? Many times it falls out so ; as one said of
general councils, they seldom were successful, because men came with
confidence and wit for victory rather than truth.* Certainly there is less
success in great matters, because men come with self-confidence. There-
fore it is a good sign that God means to bless great businesses, when he
puts it into the hearts of those that are agents in them to seek him in the
afiairs of this life. We must be poor in spirit to see that the carriage and
success comes from him.

Well, so it is in sufiering likewise. We cannot sufiier the least cross of
ourselves but with murmuring and repining, without strength from him.
When Moses came to the 'waters of strife,' Moses' spirit was discovered.
He could not endure the harshness and rebellion of the people. Num. xx. 13.
A Christian comes sometimes to such opposition that his spirit is moved,
and he discovers much corruption. It is so with the best men. Even
Moses, a meek man, when he had such temptations and provocations, it
moved him. We must labour to get a greater spirit than our own, to have
the Spirit of God to work this spiritual poverty in us.

This poverty of spirit, as we call it, is spirit uale vacimm, spiritual empti-
ness. You know in philosophy there is nothing empty in the world, but
it is filled either with air or some kind of body, and to avoid the enemy of
nature, emptiness, things will change their seat ; heavy things will go up-
ward, and things that are above will come below to avoid emptiness ; that
is contrary to nature, there being a fulness of things with one body or
other. So, I say, spiritual poverty, it is an emptying of the soul, which of
force alway bring better things in. Wheresoever this emptying of the soul
is, this making of ourselves poor, it is upon good ground by this course.
It is always such a vacuum and emptiness of one thing that brings in
another better. The soul can never be altogether empty. When wind and
vain stufi" is out, then comes better things in, which St Paul calls ' the ful-
ness of God.' He prays and wishes that they might ' be filled with the
fulness of God,' Col. ii. 9. Then comes fulness of knowledge and under-
standing, and fulness of afi'ection, and fulness of contentment, and com-
placency in the will ; and all the soul hath an answerable fulness to the
proportion of the emptying itself of itself.

In the next place, let us come to discover this disposition of poverty of
spirit where it is, and then shew some helps to it.

1. First, To discover where this blessed frame of 'soul is. Surely those
that are thus poor in spirit they are full of inaijer. 'The poor man speaks
supplications,' as the wise man saith, Prov. xviii. 23 ; that is his dialect.
The poor man is much in prayer. He that is ' poor in spirit ' is much in
supplication ; for prayers, they are the ambassadors of the poor soul to
God to supply it with the riches of his grace. Therefore where there is no
prayer there is no sense of poverty, but there is a Laodicean temper, as if
they were rich enough. You have a company of men, they say they can-
not pray privately, their spirits are barren. They intimate much pride of
spirit, for if a man be sensible of his wants you need not supply him with
words. If a poor tenant came to a landlord, and find he hath a hard
bargain, let him alone for telling his tale ; I warrant you he will lay open
the state of his wife and children, and the ill year he hath had ; he will be
eloquent enough. Take any man that is sensible of his wants, and you

. Vol. III. p. 436.— G.

248 THE EICH POVERTY ] OR,

shall not need to dictate words to him. There is no man that hath a
humble and broken heart, though he be never so illiterate, but he will have
a large heart to God in this kind.

2. Again, there is a care of using all means. Where poverty is, there
will be a making out of ourselves unto places where God bestows any
riches. They that are poor, and have no victuals at home, they will go to
market rather than they will starve ; and those that find in themselves
want of grace and comfort, surely they will go out of themselves : they
will go to God's market, they will attend upon the means. He that is like
to be arrested for debt, and hath nothing at home, it is time for him to
seek abroad for supply. So, when a man is poor spiritually, ready to be
snared and catched in everything for want of spiritual grace, he will labour
for strength in the use of all means. Therefore those that are of a Lao-
dicean stamp, that think there is too much preaching, and too much hear-
ing, and too much reading, and what need all this ado ? alas ! they were
never humbled ; they were never sensible of their state by nature ; nor are
not yet in the state of grace. For the soul of a true Christian is alway in
the state of spiritual poverty, as that it relisheth spiritual means and is not
fed with husks. A soul that is spiritually poor will discern in the use of
means, this is flourishing ; this is for the ear ; this is conceits ; alas ! it
comes for food for supply. A poor soul that finds the want of grace, and
strength, and comfort, it judgeth of the means by what it finds. There
will be a use of all means, and likewise some ability to taste where there is
true poverty of spirit.

3. Again, Where this inward poverty of spirit is, it will make God's
children xi-ondious thnnkfid, and thankful for a little grace. A poor man
that is sensible of his poverty will be more thankful for a penny, than
another man for a pound that hath money of his own. A soul that sees
the want of grace, and withal sees the excellency of grace, is thankful to
God that he will work anything in such a poor defiled soul as he is ; that
he will work any good motions, any good afiections, any degree of faith,
that he will give him any assurance of salvation. Oh he thinks what a
good God is this ! He breaks out with the apostles, Peter and Paul, that
had both been sinners themselves and found grace ; oh they were much in
thankfulness ! ' Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' &c.*
A thankful soul is a poor soul, and a poor soul is alway a thankful soul.
He that is poor he knows he hath little and deserves little ; therefore
knowing that he deserves nothing, he is thankful for and content with
anything. A humble man is alway thankful, and that is the reason that
God may have his glory from him. He is forced sometimes to humble and
abase him. He should have no sacrifice from him else. A proud man, a
conceited man, so doats upon his own worth ; he forgets the giver, he
makes himself an idol to him. Therefore such, they are usurpers of what
they have, they enter upon God's blessings, not considering from whom
they have them, nor for what end they have them. They deny God his
tribute of thankfulness because they are proud. But a man that is poor
in spirit, he enters upon all by title of gift, and receives all from God in
the form of a poor man. Therefore whatsoever he hath he returns thanks
for it again. An unthankful soul, therefore, is a proud soul. A thankful
soul is an humble abased soul alway ; and the more humble and empty the
soul is, the more thankful it is for every degree of grace and comfort.

4. Again, A soul that is thus disposed, that is poor in spirit, it is willing

* Cf. Eph. i. 3, and 1 Peter i. 3.— G.

THE POOR MAN S KICHES.

249

to resign itself to Clirisf s government , trith self-denial of anything it is able to
do of itself. It is ready to say, * Lord, I have neither witf of mine own to
govern myself, nor any strength and ability of mine own ; therefore I put
myself upon thy government, I desire to follow thy light and to go on in
thy strength.' There is alway a resignation to Christ's government, and
that in fear and trembling ; for whom we resign ourselves unto, surely we
will have a care not to displease them. A dependent life is alway an awfulf
life ; for when a man hath resigned himself to the government of another,
and knows he must depend upon him, he will have a care not to displease
such an one ; for he thinks, if I displease him he will withdraw his main-
tenance and countenance from me, and then what am I ? So the soul that
thinks it hath all from God, and from the Spirit of Christ, it resigns itself
to the Spirit of Christ, and withal it is wondrous fearful not to grieve and
displease the Spirit. For he thinks with himself, my life is but a depen-
dent Hfe, my graces are but dependent ; let God but withdraw the beams
of his Spirit and I sink ; let him withdraw his comfort and his strength,
■what am I ? Nothing but darkness, and deadness, and confusion. Those
therefore that give not themselves up to Christ's government, but are
governed by rules of policy, by the example of others, and have base
dependence upon others, they know not what spiritual poverty is. They
see there is a sufficiency in themselves to rule and govern themselves, as if
Christ's wisdom were not sufficient. They are not so disposed as the
apostle requires ; they ' work not out their salvation with fear and trem-
bling, because God gives the will and the deed,' PhiHp. ii. 12. The meaning
is this, we should work out our salvation with a holy fear and trembling,
a jealous fear, a son-like fear, lest we displease God. Why? 'He gives
both the will and the deed,' Philip, ii. 13. He gives both the will to do
good ; and when he hath done that, he gives the ability of the deed itself.
We cannot do anything, therefore we had need to walk in an awful condi-
tion, and not displease him in anything, lest he withdraw the assistance of
his Spirit and leave us to ourselves ; and then we shall fall, to his dishonour,
to the discredit of religion, to the wasting of our own comfort, and the
advantage of Satan. This is the temper of a man that is poor in spirit.
He gives himself up to Christ's government, and depends upon it ; and
thereupon he is wondrous fearful to displease him in anything.

There are a company that know not what belong to this, that hope to
be saved by Christ, and yet they will grieve the Spirit ; they will venture
into any place, upon any sight, into any company : but if ever they had
been acquainted with the government of Christ's Spirit, they would know
what it was to grieve the Spirit, and the Spirit would grieve them too. It
is a sign they have not the Spirit of God, because he doth not check them
when they have done. Therefore your adventurous careless persons, that
are indifferent for all things, for all companies and places, that do not
watch over themselves, and over their words and carriages, they have not
this poverty of spirit. For then they would know what it were to displease
God in anything, to walk and to speak loosely, because hereby they grieve
the Spirit ; and would presently find either want in grace or comfort.
There is not one of many that are acquainted with the nature of this
spiritual communion with God, and therefore they do not enjoy the happi-
ness that those do, who are thus qualified, that are * poor in spirit.'

5. Again, A man that is poor in spirit is very tractable, as it is in Isaiah :
' A child shall lead them.' ' The lamb and the hon shall feed together,'
* That is, ' wisdom.'— G. t That is, ' a life fuU of awe.'— G.

250

THE RICH POVERTY ; OR,

&c., ' and a child shall lead them,' Isa. xi. 6 ; that is, such an one, you
shall lead him with any counsel, let the person be never so mean ; having
smarted for his sins, and his own counsel and ways, ' a child shall lead
him,' that is, any man shall lead and move him to that which is good, he
stands not upon terms.

6. And alway he that is poor in spirit, he is no upbraider of other men's
wants. He is more sensible of his own than that he sees in other men.
He is not prone to upbraid and object against them their wants and con-
ditions, he is so taken up with the sense of his own.

7. And lastly. He that is poor in spirit is humbled in himself for spiritual
wants ; not so much for outward things, but because he hath not a large
heart to God, because he finds impatience, because he finds not that
heavenly-mindedness and strength to go through the duties that God
requires, that his flesh is so backward ; these things abase him and bring
him on his knees, and not so much outward things ; and answerably he
looks for spiritual supply. When a man is humble and poor in spirit he
is not abased with any outward thing, that that he would have is mercy
and grace. The apostle, when he would pray for all happiness to the
churches, he prays for grace, mercy, and peace ; for as they are more
sensible of their spiritual wants, so they are carried in their desires after
that that may give them satisfaction that way.

Use. Let us labour to brimj our souls to this blessed temper, to be poor in
spirit ; the happy temper that our Saviour began his preaching withal.
The first thing that he falls upon is, ' Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven,' Mat. v. 3. But before I come to any
directions for the getting this spiritual poverty, we must know and pre-
mise this caution, that we must not be so ' poor in spirit,' as to deny the
work of grace in our hearts. It is one thing to be ' poor in spirit,' and
to see our wants ; and it is another thing to be unthankful and unkind ; to
deny the work of grace, and so to gratify Satan. We must not give false
witness against ourselves, and so deny the work of God's Spirit in us. It
is not poverty, but darkness of spirit. We are not acquainted with that
grace that God hath enriched us with. Therefore where the soul is in a
right temper, there is a double eye, one to see the defects and the stains of
those graces we have ; to see what we are wanting in of what we should
be, and to see how our graces are stained, and that there is a mingling of
our corruptions with them. The viewing with the one eye, that we have
any grace, that should make us cheerful, and thankful, and comfortably go
on, considering that there are some beginnings that God will perfect ; for
he never repents of his beginnings. And then a sight of the want, and of
the stains of those graces that we mingle our corruptions with them ; that
works again this poverty of spirit to go on still out of ourselves, to desire
grace, to purge and cleanse ourselves more and more. Therefore, I beseech
you, let us remember that, that we do not unthankfully deny the work of
grace, and think that to be poverty of spirit, as some do out of covetous-
ness, because they have not that they would have, they think they have
nothing at all ; that is a spiritual covetousness. But let us be wise to
discern what God hath wrought in our hearts, what he hath done for and
in our souls. A holy man, you shall have him much in mourning and
complaining, but it is of himself, not of God, as if God were wanting to
him. You shall have a holy man in a perpetual kind of despair, but it is
in himself ; he hopes in God still. Remember this caution, that as we
complain, so let us be sure it be of ourselves ; alway justify God in his

THE POOR MAN S RICHES.

mercy ; and if we despair, let us despair of ourselves, that we can do
nothing of ourselves. But be sure to maintain, all we can, the hope of
God's rich mercy in Christ.

Now, having premised this caution, the way to come to spiritual
poverty among many others is : first, to bring ourselves into the presence
of God, to the presence of greater lights than our own. Men that think
themselves somebody when they are alone ; yet when they consider God
sees them, whose eyes are a thousand times brighter than the sun, then
they learn to abhor themselves in ' dust and ashes,' as we see Job did when
God talked with him, when he saw God, Job xlii. 6 ; and Abraham when
he talked with God, he accounts himself dust and ashes, Gen. xviii. 27.
Let us bring ourselves into the presence of God ; consider his holiness,
his justice. And withal let us bring ourselves to greater lights than our
own ; that is, oft come into the company of those that have greater grace
than ourselves. The stars give no light when the sun is up. The stars
are somebody in the night, but they are nothing in the day. And those
that are conceited of their own excellencies, when they come into the pre-
sence and company, and converse with those that are better than them-
selves, their spirits fall down, they are abased. It is a good course therefore
not to love alway to be best in the company, as is some men's vanity,
because they will be conceited of their own worth, but to present ourselves
before God in his ordinances, and present ourselves in communion and
fellowship with others that are greater and richer in grace than ourselves,
and so we may see our own wants. This is one direction to get spiritual
poverty.

2. Again, That we ma^ come to be poor in spirit, let us consider what
we are, that %ce are creatures. The term whence creation begins is just
nothing. It is so in the creatures in the world. God made all of nothing,
and is it not so in the new creature much more ? Therefore if I will be
anything in myself as of myself, surely I must look to no creature of God's
making. For grace is God's creature. Therefore it must rise of nothing;
there must be a sight of our own nothingness. Indeed a Christian in him-
self is nothing now in the state of grace. Whatsoever he is for grace or
glory, it is out of himself. He hath nothing in himself as of himself ; all
that he hath he hath from Christ. He is poor in himself, but he hath
riches enough in Christ, if he sees his own poverty. He is a sinner in
himself, but he hath righteousness enough in Christ, if he sees his sins.
Let us know that this is a qualification to interest us in the good that is in
Christ. We renew our right in Christ no otherwise than we renew the
sense of our own poverty and want. Would we see all in Christ, that we
have riches, and wisdom, and happiness, and favour, and life, and all in
him ? With the same spiritual eye of the soul, let us see that we have
nothing in ourselves ; for I can no otherwise renew that right and interest
I have in Christ, but by renewing this sight. We altogether shine in the
beams of our husband. The consideration of this will be a means to work
our care and endeavour towards it; that we are creatures, ' new creatures;'
and therefore we must rise of nothing in ourselves, and we must be main-
tained and supported by the new Adam, ' the second Adam,' and have
fresh grace from him continually. * We move and live in him,' as I said
before.

3. Again, That we may be poor in spirit, help ourselves ivith presenting
to ourselves abasing, emptying considerations. What be they ? Among the
rest reflect our minds back to what we were before God shewed mercy upon

252 THE RICH POVERTY ; OR,

US ; how unprofitably we spent our days ; what a deal of good we left
undone that we might have done. For the present, consider the imper-
fections that hang upon us, whereby we even defile the best performances
that come from us. Let us have in the eye of our soul presented our
special corruptions for the present. For the time to come let us present
to our souls what will become of us ere long; that for outward things, that
nature is prone to be highly conceited of, they shall lie in the dust. These
bodies of ours must lie low in the dust ; all other things must be taken
from us, and we from them, we know not how soon. Let us oft think and
consider of the vanity of all things, what will all things be ere long. They
must all come to nothing. The fire will consume all that is glorious in
the world. There will be no excellency but the excellency of Christ, and
his church and children ; and think of the day of judgment. What will
stand for current then? Think of the time of our dissolution, how we
shall appear before Christ; what we have in us that will give us confidence
at that day and time, to look upon him with comfort ; that those thoughts
of the time to come, of death, and judgment, and eternity may not be
frightful to us. The consideration of these things will make us to look
about us, and make us indeed ' poor in spirit.'

Especially let us consider what our profession requires of us ; not by the
law, let that go ; but what in the covenant of grace we should be, and are
not, it will shame the best of us. Alas ! how much good might we have
done that we have not ! How have we failed in bringing honour and
credit to our profession ! How barren have we been in good works !
How unwatchful over our thoughts and speeches, whereby we have stained
our religion and our consciences, and grieved the Spirit of God. Let us
consider how short we are of that we might have been ; and this will bring
inward shame and confusion of spirit, from whence this temper of
poverty of spirit comes. Consider of these things, and enlarge them in
your own meditations. There is not a more fruitful spending of our
thoughts, next to the consideration of Christ, and the riches we have in
him, than to consider what we are in ourselves ; that we may be in a
perpetual disposition of soul, fit to receive the good that is to be had in
Christ.

Two graces are the main graces that must go along with us all the days
of our lives ; this grace to go out of ourselves ; and another grace to go to
another that is better than ourselves, in whom lies our happiness. That
we may go out of ourselves and the creature, and all that is in the creature,
poverty of spirit is necessary, to see that there is not that in ourselves that
will yield a foundation of comfort, and poverty of spirit sees that there is
not that that we possess in the creature that will stand out. The creature,
that is a particular good, for a particular case, to supply a particular want,
and but for a time, it is fading and outward; but the comfort we must have
it must be spiritual and universal, to give contentment to the soul. The
consideration of these things will force us to go out of ourselves ; this
poverty of spirit, that we have not enough to make us happy. The heathen
men, by the use of discretion and knowledge, had so much to see that there
is nothing in the world to make man happy ; the negative part they knew
well enough. But there must be another grace to carry us to a positive
happiness where that lies, and that is the grace of trust that follows. * I
will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people,' that shall be
disposed and prepared by their outward poverty to inward spiritual poverty ;
to go out of themselves to Christ, to trust in him.

THE POOR man's kiches. 253

' And tliey shall trust in the name of the Lord.'

This is the carriage of these poor and afflicted people. * They shall trust
in the name of the Lord.'

God hath no delight in afflicting his children ; he joys and delights in
the prosperity of his children. It is our sinful nature that forceth him to
afflict us, that he may wean us from the world, because we are prone to
surfeit upon things here below. All that God doth is that w^e may trust in
him, which we would never do unless he did afflict us, and make us ' poor
in spirit ;' but when we are afflicted and poor in spirit, and have nothing
at home, we will make out abroad, as people in necessity will do. Supply
must be had, either at home or from without ; and when the soul is beaten
and driven out of itself, which requires much ado, then we are fit for this
blessed act here spoken of, to ' trust in the name of the Lord.' And the
one is an evidence of the other. How shall we know that we are suffi-
ciently humbled and made poor in spirit ? When we trust in the name of
the Lord,

In the unfolding of these words, take these for grounds ; which I will but
name.

First, That naturally every man will have a trust, in himself, or out of
himself.

Secondly, That God is the trust of the poor man ; what he wants in
himself he hath in God. God is the rock or the castle to which he retires.
He hath supply in him.
The third is, that

Obs. God is trusted as he is known. They shall ' trust in the name of
the Lord.' For God can be no otherwise trusted than he hath made his
will known. It is presumptuous boldness to challenge anything of God
that we have not a promise for ; or to attribute that to him that he is not.
God is therefore trusted as he hath made himself by some name known to
us. He hath made himself known by his attributes, by his nature and
essence, Jehovah ; and by his word, and the promises in his word. For
his word is one of the best and sweetest names whereby he hath made him-
self known. The name of God is glorious in all the world, in the creation ;
and every creature hath a tongue to shew forth the power, and wisdom, and
goodness of God. But what is this to us, if we know not the will of God
toward us ? There is the name of God discovered ; what he is in himself ;
something of his power and wisdom, &c. But what he is to us, gracious,
and merciful, and sweet ; that we must gather out of the discovery of his
own breast. He must come out of that * light that none can attain unto,'
1 Tim. vi. 16, and discover himself as he hath done in his word; and by
this name of God, his word, we come to make use of his other names. The
next thing I will speak of is the improvement of God when he is known, to
trust in him, to pitch our trust and confidence upon him. ' They shall
trust in the name of the Lord.'

Ohs. For there must be an application of the soul to God. We must lay
our souls upon God. Though he be a rock, yet we must lay our souls upon
him ; and though he be a foundation, yet we must build upon him and his
truth revealed. There is an adequate comfort in God and in the Scrip-
tures, and superabundant too to all our necessities whatsoever. It transcends
them all. There is more in the spring than we want ourselves. Yet not-
standing there must be grace in the soul to repair to God. There must be
an hand, an empty beggar's hand, such as faith is, to reach that help that
God yields. There must be a wing to fly to our tower. The wing of the

254 THE EICH POVERTY ; OR,

soul is this trust and faith ; and when these two meet, faith or trust, and
God, what a sweet meeting is there ! For emptiness and fulness, poverty
and riches, weakness and strength, to meet together, these will grasp
sweetly ; for the excellency and all-sufficiency of the one, and the necessity
of the other meeting together, breeds a sweet correspondency. We must
' trust,' therefore, in the name of the Lord. That is the way to improve
whatsoever is in God for our good.

Faith, the nature of it is, after it hath applied itself to the grounds of
comfort, to draw virtue and strength from God. Of itself it is the most
beggarly grace of all. Love is a rich grace, but yet notwithstanding in the
covenant of grace, wherein grace and mercy must have the glory, God hath
established such a grace to rule there as ascribes all out of itself, and is an
empty grace of itself, to make use of the riches that is out of itself ; there-
fore God hath made choice of this trusting instead of all other graces, as
indeed leading, to all other graces whatsoever. God brings us home by a
contrary way to that we fell from him. How did we fall from God at the
first, that was our rock, our defence, and trust ? We fell from him by dis-
trust, by having him in a jealousy, as if he aimed more at himself than at
our goods. So the devil persuaded our first parents. The next way, there-
fore, to come back again to God, it must be to have a good conceit of
God, not to have him in jealousy, but to be convinced in our souls that he
loves us better than we can love ourselves, in spite of the devil and all his
temptations. So to trust God is to rely upon him in life and death.
Therefore God hath appointed this grace, as he saith here, ' They shall
trust in the name of the Lord.'

Now, because we all pretend we trust in the name of the Lord, we will
first examine our trust. Let us try our trust a little, that we may see
whether it be true trust or no. And then upon that we will give some
directions how to come to this blessed condition, to trust ' in the name of
the Lord.'

For the first : I do not take trust here for the first faith, which is the
grace of union to receive Christ ; but for the exercise of faith afterwards in
a Christian's life. So we speak of it as a fruit rather that comes from
faith. And we may know our trust in the name of the Lord, being now
conceived as a gracious Father in Christ, clothed with the relation of a
father : for so we must trust him, not God absolutely, for there is no com-
fort in an absolute God, distinct from his relations ; but when we appre-
hend him in relation as a sweet Father in Christ, in that name, then the
nature of God is lovely to us, between whom and us there was an infinite
distance before. Now Christ being Immanuel, God with us, has brought
God and us together in terms of league. Now our nature is lovely to God
in Christ, because it is taken to the unity of his person ; and God's nature
is lovely to us, having made himself a Father in Christ his beloved Son.
Therefore, when we speak of God, our thoughts must run upon God as thus
conceived, as clothing himself with a sweet term of Father, om* God in
covenant, we must so apprehend him.

1. Now one evidence of this trust in this our God, is a care to please
him in all things. When we depend upon any men, tve have a care to please
them. A tenant that fears to be thrust out, will strive to please his land-
lord. W^e that hold all upon this tenure, upon faith and trust in God, we
should fear to displease him.

2. And there will be likewise an use of all means to serve God's jn-ovi-
dence and care of us, if we trust in him ; or else it is a tempting and not a

THE POOE man's RICHES. 255

trusting. There are no men more careful of the use of means than those
that are surest of a good issue and conclusion ; for the one stirs up dili-
gence in the other. Assurance of the end stirs up diligence in the means.
For the soul of a believing Christian knows that God hath decreed both ;
both fall under the same decree : when God purposed to do such a thing,
he purposed to do it by such and such means. Ti'ust, therefore, is with
diligence in the use of all means that God hath ordained. He that trusts
a physician's skill, will be very careful to observe what was prescribed, and
will omit nothing. It is but presumption ; it is not trust where there is
not a care in the use of means, as we see many pretend to trust in God
and sever the means from the end ; they are regardless of the means of
salvation.

3. Again, Those that trust in God, they are quiet irheii they have used the
means. Faith hath a quieting power. It hath a power to still the soul
and to take up the quarrels, and murmuring, and grudgings that are there,
and to set the soul down quiet ; because it proposeth to the soul greater
grounds of comfort, than the soul can see any cause of discomfort. The
SQul being reasonable, yields to the strength of the reason. Now, when
faith propounds grand comforts against all discouragements whatsoever,
that overcomes them, that is greater in the way of comfort than other things
in the way of discouragement, the soul is quiet. It hopes comfort will be
had. The soul is silent and at rest. We see in Ps. xlii. 11, when there
was a mutiny in David's soul, by reason of the perplexed state he was in,
he falls a- chiding downright with his soul, * Why art thou disquieted,
my soul ! and why art thou troubled ?' v. 11. But how doth he take up
the contention ? * Trust in God, he is thy God.' So that wheresoever
there is faith, there is a quiet soul first or last. There will be stirring at
the first ; the waters of the soul will not be quiet presently. As in a pair
of balances there will be a little stirring when the^weight is put in till there
will be poise ; so in the soul there will be some stirring and moving ; it
comes not to a quiet consistence till there be some victory of faith with
some conflict, till at length it rest and stay the soul. For this power faith
has to quiet the soul, because it bottoms the soul so strongly. There is
reason for it ; it sets the soul upon God, and upon his promises. * There-
fore he that trusts in God is as mount Sion,' Ps. cxxv. 1. You may stir
him sometime and move him, but you cannot remove him. The soul is
quiet, because it is pitched upon a quiet object.

Therefore, where there is cherishing of disturbance in the soul, and
cherishing of doubts, there is no faith, or very little faith ; because it is the
property of faith to silence the soul and to make quiet where it comes.
This is one evidence and sign of true faith. And this is discerned especially
in times of great trouble ; for then the soul of the righteous is not dis-
quieted, as you have it in Ps. cxii. 7, 8, ' His heart is fixed, therefore he is
not afraid of ill tidings.'

4. And therefore this evidence to the rest, that faith as it hath a quieting
power, so it hath a power to free the soul from all base fears, from the tyranny
of base fear. There will some fear arise. We carry flesh about us, and
flesh will alway be full of objections and trouble our peace ; but, notwith-
standing, it will free the soul — this trusting in God — from the tyranny and
dominion of base fears. If any news or tidings be of any great hard matter,
I beseech you, who hath his soul best composed at that time ? A sound
Christian, that hath made his peace with God, that hath his trust in God,
that knows what it is to make use of God, to repair to him. But for

256 THE RICH POVERTY ; OR,

another man, in tlie time of extremity and trouble, lie runs hither and
thither, he hath not a tower to go unto, he hath no ^^lace of refuge to repair
to. Therefore he is worse than the poor silly creatures. There is not a
creature but hath a retiring place. The poor conies have the rocks to go
unto, and the birds have their nests, and every creature, when night or
danger approacheth, they have their hiding places. Only a wicked, careless
man that hath not acquainted himself with God, when troubles come, he
hath no hiding, nor no abiding place, but lies open to the storm of God's
displeasure. Therefore he is surprised with fears and cares, and pulled in
pieces with distractions. He is as a meteor that hangs in the clouds ; he
cannot tell which way to fall. But a Christian is not such a meteor, he
falls square which way soever he falls, cast him which way you will. For
his soul is fixed, he hath laid his soul upon his God. We see the difier-
ence in this between Saul and David. When David was in trouble, ' he
trusted in the Lord his God,' when he was ready to be stoned. What doth
Saul when he was in trouble ? He goes to the witch ; and from thence to
the sword's point.*

5. Again, Where there is this excellent grace of trusting in God, and the
soul is calmed by the Spirit of God, to rely upon God in covenant as a
Father in Christ, it will rely upon God ivithout means and when all thimfs
seem contrary. So the Spirit of God will diflference a Christian from a
natural man, that will go so far as his brain can reach. If he can see how
things can be compassed, he will trust God, as if God had not a larger com-
prehension than he. Where he sees no way or means to contrive a deli-
verance, nor no means to satisfy his desire, there the soul of a natural man
sinks and falls down : a politician will go as far as reason can carry him.
But a Christian, when he sees no means, he knows God can make means.
Now, when all things are opposite, if he hath a word of God, he will trust
God, even against the present state and face of things, as Job saith, ' Though
he kill me, yet will I trust in him,' Job xiii. 15. Therefore in the sense of
sin, because there is a promise to sinners that, if they confess their sins,
God will pardon them ; he will believe the forgiveness of sins, though he
feel the guilt of sin. And in misery he will believe an evasion, f and escape,
and that God will support him in it, because God hath so promised. And
in * darkness, when he sees no light,' as it is Isa. 1. 10 ; in such a state
' he will trust in God.' As a child in the dark clasps about his father, so
a child of God in darkness when he sees no hght, he will clasp about his
God, and break thorough the clouds that are between God and his soul ;
as indeed faith hath a piercing eye. It pulls off the vizor of God's face.
Though he seem angiy, yet he will believe he is in covenant and he is a
Father. Therefore though God shew himself in his dealing as offended,
yet ho argues God may be offended with me, but he cannot hate me ; there
is hope. Faith, where it is in any strength, it will believe in contraries.
In death, when a man is turned to rottenness and dust, faith apprehends
life and resurrection, and glory to come. It will trust in God's means, or
no means, if it hath a promise.

6. Again, He that trusts in God iruly ivill trust him for all thinys, and at
all times. For all things ; for faith never chooseth and singleth out its
object, to believe this and not that, for all comes from the same God.
Therefore he that trusts God for one thing, will trust him for all things.
If I will trust a man for many pounds, surely I will trust him for a shilling.

* Cf. Ps. xiii. 15, xxvi. 1, with 1 Sam. xxviii. 9, seq., andxxxi. 4. — G.
t That is, = ' a way out.' Cf. 1 Cor. x. 13.— G,

THE POOR man's RICHES. 257

He that pretends he will trast God — God will save me, God is merciful —
and yet notwithstanding will not trust him for common things, it is an
abusive delusion and flattering of his own soul in vain. There is no such
trust in him, because he that trusts God for the main will trust him for
the less. Therefore true trust is for all things. He that trusts God for
forgiveness of sins, which is the main, and hath wrestled with God for the
forgiveness of sins, and found peace with God there, he will easily wrestle
in other baser and less temptations. As God saith to Jacob, * Thou
art Israel, thou hast prevailed with God, and shalt prevail over men,' Gen.
xxxii. 28, so a true Christian, that in the grand point of forgiveness of
sins, when his conscience is surprised with the fear of God's wrath, hath
gotten assurance of the pardon of his sins, when he is to set upon other
lesser temptations, he overcomes them easily.

1. Therefore a Christian will trust God, as for forgiveness of sins and Hfe
everlasting, so ivith his good name. Oh, will some say, you will be reported
of thus and thus. He cares not. He knows the cause is just. He will
trust his good name with God, ' who will bring a man's righteousness forth
clear as the noonday,' as David speaks, Ps. xxxvii. 6. He that will not
trust God with his good name is of a base spirit, and fear of disgrace keeps
many men from many just actions.

2. He that truly trusts God, will trust him with the righting of his cause.
He will not pull God's office out of his hands. He will not revenge him-
self, but he will trust God. God certainly will right me first or last._ He
will only use the legal means, and that quietly. But a man that is not
acquainted with the Spirit of God is presently moved with revenge,!and hath
not learned to overcome himself in this conflict. A man hath gone indeed
very far in religion, that can conquer himself in this conflict, that can trust
his cause with God when he is wronged and overcome by might, &c.^ So
our Saviour Christ committed his cause to him ' that was able to judge
righteously,' 1 Peter ii. 23. Every true Christian hath the spirit of Christ.
He, ' when he was reviled, retorted not again, but committed the cause to
him that was able to judge righteously.' Shall I be able to commit my soul
to God in the hour of death ? and shall I not, in case of revenge, be able to
commit my case to God, when I have done that that peaceably I naay do ?
I may suspect that I am but yet an hypocrite ; I have not true trust in God,

3. Again, He that hath learned truly to trust God for the grand mam
matters, he will trust him likewise with his posterity, with his children, with-
out using indirect means to make them rich, as if they could not be blessed
unless they have such a portion put into their hand when we die ; as if God
had not stock enough for them, ' for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness
thereof,' Ps. xxiv. 1. And he is the ' God of the faithful, and of their seed,'
Gen. xvii. 19. Is he so ? Then let us labour to leave our children in
covenant, leave them in a gracious frame and state of soul, that they may
be God's children ; and then we leave them rich, for we leave them ' God
all-sufficient ' to be their portion. Therefore those that pretend, I do this but
for my posterity and children, when they are unjust and unconscionable*
in their getting, they make this defence for their unbelief. If they had true
faith, as they trust God with their souls, as they pretend at least, so they
would with their children and posterity.

4. Again, He that trusts God truly, will trust God with his gifts, with the
distribution of his alms, with parting with that he hath for the present, when
he sees it like seed cast upon the water. When seed is cast upon the

* That is, ' unconacientious.' — G.
VOL. VI S

258 THE RICH POVERTY ; OR,

water, we are likely never to see it again. Oh, but saith the wise man,
* cast thy bread upon the water, and thou shall see it after a certain time.'
He that hath learned to trust God will believe this. Though he cast away
his bounty, yet he hath cast it upon God and Christ, that will return it
again ; he knows he doth but lend to the Lord. Therefore those that think
their bounty and alms and good deeds to be lost, because they see not a
present return, a present crop of that seed, they have not a spirit of trust
in God ; for he that hath will endeavour to be ' rich in good works ; ' nay,
he will account it a special favour, a greater favour, to have a heart to do
good, than to have means. A reprobate may have means, abundance to do
good ; but only a child of God hath a heart to do good, and when he hath
gotten a large and gracious heart to do good, it pleaseth him. Then he sees
he hath an evidence that he is the child of God. He knows he shall not
lose a cup of cold water, not the least thing that he doth in the name of
Christ. The apprehension of this should make us more fruitful, and
' abound in the work of the Lord,' 1 Cor. xv. 58. It is for want of trust
and faith that we are so barren as we are in good works.

5. Again, He that will trust God with the greatest matters, will trust
God witk his ivays for direction. He will not trust his ov/n wit and wisdom,
but God. God shall be wise for him. He will follow God's directions, and
whatsoever is contrary to God's direction he will not do. He will acknow-
ledge God in all his ways. Prov. iii. 5, ' Acknowledge God in all thy ways,'
acknowledge him to be thy guide, thy defender, thy light, to direct thee ;
acknowledge him to be able and willing to give thee success ; acknowledge
God in all thy ways and consultations ; and when we have especially any
great matters in hand, oh, I beseech you, let us learn to acknowledge God.
What is it to acknowledge him ? To go to him for direction and protection
in doing our duty, that we seek to him for strength and for success ; this is
to acknowledge God in our ways. What makes men so unfortunate and
successless in their consultations ? Because they are so faithless ; they do
not acknowledge God in their ways, but trust too much to seeming things
and appearance of things ; they are carried too much with that. Though
things seem to go never so well, yet let nothing make us give over to
acknowledge God ; nay, when things are never so ill, let us acknowledge
God, for God can set all straight and at rights again. Alas ! what a small
matter is it for him that rules heaven and earth, and turns this great wheel
of all things, to turn the lesser wheels to order lesser businesses, and bring
them to a happy issue and conclusion ! It is but a little matter with his
command, seeing he rules all things. It is but trusting in him and praying
to him, and then using the means with dependence upon him. Let us
therefore acknowledge God this way, by committing our ways and affairs to
him. We need knowledge and strength, and a comfortable issue for all that
is necessary in our affairs ; let us acknowledge God, and fetch all these from
him.

6. Well, the last thing that we have any use of trusting God withal is,
uhen we are dying, to trust our souls, to commit them to God, and yield them
up to him, our depositum, to lay it with him. He that hath inured himself
to trust God all his life, and to live by faith, he will be able at length with
some comfort to die by faith. He that hath trusted God all his life with
all things that God hath trusted him, he can easily trust God with his soul ;
and he that hath not inured himself to trust God in this life, undoubtedly he
will never trust God with his soul when he dies. It is but a forced trust.

Thus you see ia all the passages of our lives we must learn to trust God,

THE POOR man's RICHES. 259

and to make use of Grod, for God is so abundant that he is never drawn
dry. He joys when he is made use of. It is an honour to him. Let us
try ourselves by that I have said, whether we truly trust God or no. Let
us not deceive our own souls, but labour to trust God for all things. Let
it be our daily practice in the use of means. Look to the course that he
prescribes us, and then look up to him for strength and blessing and success.
This ought to be the life of a Christian, Oculus ad cceliim, as they say of
the governor of a ship. He hath his hand to the stern, and his eye to the
pole-star, to be directed by that. So the life of a Christian. He must
have his hand to the stern, he must be doing that that God prescribes him,
and he must have his eye to the star, to be guided in his course by God's
direction. He that hath not this knows not what it is to trust in God.

How shall we bring our souls to this so necessary a duty ? Indeed, it is
a very hard matter. We know what it is to live by our wits, by our wealth,
by our lands ; but what it is to live by faith in depending upon God, few
souls are acquainted with that.

Therefore, in the first place, learn to know God. You see here, we must
trust in his name. We know men by their names. God and his name
are all one. His name is himself, and himself is his name. Therefore,
let us learn to know God as he hath discovered himself : know him in his
works, but especially in his ivord ; know him by that work, as he hath dis-
covered himself in his word. Let us know his promises, and have them
in store for all assays * whatsoever ; promises for grace and for direction
in this world. God will not ' fail us, nor forsake us,' John xiv. 18. He
will be in all extremities with us, ' in the fire and in the water,' Isa. xliii. 2 ;
and the promises of issue, 'All things shall work for good to them that love
God,' Rom. viii. 28 ; and the promise of his Spirit, ' He will give his Holy
Spirit to them that ask him,' Luke xi. 13. Besides particular promises, a
world of them in Scripture, let us know God in these promises ; they are
our inheritance, our portion. And if we should go to God, and not be
acquainted with these, he will ask us upon what ground ? How shall we
be able to go to God ? But when we have his promise, we may say boldly
with the psalmist, ' Lord, remember thy promise, wherein thou hast caused
thy servant to trust.' We may put God in remembrance : not that he
forgets, but he will have us mindful of what he promiseth, and put him in
mind. And it is an evidence to our souls that he will grant any thing,
when we have faith to put him in mind of his promise : ' Lord, remember
thy promise, wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust.' Lord, thou
canst not deny thy word, and thy truth, and thyself, and thy promise, and
thy name by which thou hast made thyself known. Thus we should know
God in his word ; as it is Ps. ix. 10, ' They that know thy name will trust
in thee, Lord.' We never trust a man till we know him ; and those that
are not good, we say they are better laaown than trusted ; but the more we
know God, the more we shall trust him.

And know him in his special attributes that the tvord sets him out in, besides
the promises, that we may know that he is able to make good all these
promises ; and then we shall trust him. What are those attributes ? He
hath made himself known to be all-sufficient. What a world of comfort is
in that. He saith to Abraham, * I am God all-sufficient : walk before me,
and be perfect,' Gen. xvii. 1. Take thou no thought for any other thing :
* I am God all-sufficient.' There is in him whatsoever may be for an object
of trust. He is all-sufficient. He hath power. * Our trust is in the name
* That is, ' essays,' endeavours, == undertakings.' — G.

260 THE RICH POVERTY ; OR,

of the Lord, that made heaven and earth,' Ps. cxv. 15. There is a con-
sideration to strengthen faith : there is power enough. We beheve in a
God that made heaven and earth ; and there is will to help us, he is our
God ; and there is skill to help us : as St Peter saith, * He knows how to
deliver,' 2 Pet. ii. 9. It is his practice. He hath used it from the begin-
ning of the church, and will to the end. He knows how to deliver them,
to protect and stand by them ; he hath power, and will, and skill to do it.
And then again, he is everywhere. He is such a castle, and tower, and
defence. We have him near us in all times : he is * a present help in
trouble,' as it is Ps. xlvi. 1. What an object of trust is here, if we had
but faith to make use of it. Let us therefore know God in his word, in
his attributes, and this will be a means to strengthen trust ; as it is Ps.
xxxvi. 7, * How sweet is thy goodness ; therefore shall the sons of men
trust under the shadow of thy wings.' Why come we under the shadow of
God's wing ? Because his goodness is sweet : he is a fit object for trust.
The things of this world, the more we know them, the less we trust them,
for they are but vain. But there is such infiniteness in God, that the more
we know him, the more we shall trust him. Therefore, let us grow in the
knowledge of God's word and truth.

And add experimental knowledge. It helps trust marvellously : the
experience of others, and our own experience. When we see God hath
helped his church in all times, especially when they have sought him by
fasting and prayer : ' Our fathers trusted in thee, and were not confounded,'
Ps. xxii. 4, 5. Therefore, if we trust in thee, we shall not be confounded.
So for our own experience : ' Thou hast been my God from my mother's
womb ; I have depended upon thee from my mother's breast : forsake me
not in mine old years, in my grey hairs, when my strength faileth me,'
Ps. Ixxi. 18. Thus we may gather upon God from former experience, that
God will not now forsake us, because we have had experience of his kind-
ness in former times. He hath been my God from my childhood ; there-
fore he will be now. This is a good argument^ because God is as he was ;
he is the same, he is never drawn dry : ' Where he loves, he loves to the
end,' John xiii. 1. Where he begins, he will end. Therefore, this should
strengthen our faith, to gather experience from former things. Thus David
allegeth the lion and the bear ; and so St Paul, * He hath delivered me,
therefore he will deliver me,' 2 Tim. iii. 11. It is ordinary with the saints
of God.

Again, If we would trust in God, labour every day to be acquainted with
God in daihj prayer, in hearing, and reading, and meditation. We trust
friends with whom we are much acquainted ; and those that are not
acquainted with God, in that communion which belongs to Christians, that
do not often talk with God by prayer and meditation, when they go to God
in extremity, what will God say to them ? Upon what acquaintance ? You
are strangers to me, and I will be a stranger to you ; and ' Wisdom itself
will laugh at their destruction,' Prov. i. 26, when they will force acquaint-
ance upon God when they have use of him, and never care for him in the
time of peace. Therefore, if we would trust God, and go to God boldly, as
who is there here now that will not have need of him ? We have need of
him continually, but sometimes more than others. Therefore, I say, let us
be acquainted with him, that we may after trust him. Those that have not
the care to be acquainted with God, either they have not the heart to go
to God, or if they have, they have but a cold answer. But indeed, for the
most part, they have no heart to go to God, for their hearts misgive them.

THE POOB man's RICHES. 261

and tell them they have been careless of God, they have neglected God.
Therefore, God will not regard them : * Go to the gods ye have trusted,' as
it is Judges x. 14. Answerable to our care, beloved, in the time of peace,
will our comfort be when we are in trouble. Therefore I beseech you, let
us remember this, as one means to strengthen our trust, our daily acquaint-
ance with God ; and acquaint ourselves so with him, as to keep him our
friend, not to oifend him, for if we offend him, we shall not trust him. A
galled conscience is afraid of God, as a sore eye is of light. A comfortable
conscience* is from a conscience to please God. ' This is our boldness and
confidence,' saith Paul, that we have laboured to * keep a good conscience,'
that we may have him our friend, 2 Cor. i. 15, Heb. xiii. 18.

Again, Let us labour to exercise our trust upon all occasions ; for things
that are exercised are the brighter and the stronger. Let us inure our-
selves to trust in God for all things, and to trust him with all things ;
with our bodies, with our souls, with our estates, with our children, with
our ways, with our good name, with our credit and reputation, with all ;
as I said before in the signs of trust. Faith it grows in the exercise, as
we see Ps. Ixii., a psalm expressing David's trust in God, and the conflict
with his soul in trusting. He begins, ' Yet my soul waits upon the Lord,'
&c. ; and in verse 2d, ' I shall not be greatly moved,' saith he ; but when
he had gone on, and exercised his faith still, then he saith in verse 6th,
' He is my rock, and my Saviour, and defence ; I shall not be moved.'
He that at the beginning saith, ' I shall not greatly be moved,' afterward,
working upon his heart and soul, and exercising his faith, saith, ' I shall
not be moved ; he is my rock, my Saviour and defence.' Faith it is the
engine by which we do all, by which we pi'evail with God and overcome
the world, and all the snares on the right hand and on the left ; it is that
whereby we do all. Therefore we had need to keep it in exercise, and
inure it, that we may have it to manage and use upon all occasions. It is
not enough to have faith in us, but we must live by it. It must not only
live in us, but we must live by it. This ^is another way to strengthen this
faith, and assurance, and trusting in God.

The next is to practise that I spake of in the forenoon, to grow * poor in
spirit,' ' for they shall trust in the name of the Lord.' Let us labour more
and more to see our own wants. A Christian should have a double eye :
one to look to himself and to his own wants, to be abased ; another eye to
God's promise, to God's nature, to trust in God ; and thus we should pass
our days. The more we can empty ourselves, the more we shall be filled
with God. We see here in the text the way to trust in God, to be ' poor
in spirit.' The reason is in nature. Whosoever is not poor in himself,
and sees a necessity, he will never go out of himself, for he hath some
other supply. Therefore, if we would learn to trust in God, we must learn
to empty ourselves of all self-confidence, by observing our weakness and
wants ; by taking notice, not so much of our graces, as of our wants.
When Moses came from the mount, his face shone ; he knew not of it.
All the world about him knew it besides himself, but he observed it not,
saith the Scripture, Exod. xxxiv. 29. So when a Christian considers not,
especially in temptations to pride, what he hath, but what he wants — how
little good he hath done, how many evil thoughts and actions have passed
from him, how short he is in fruitfulness and thankfulness to God — this is
the way to trust in God, for then we will keep close to God when we do see
our own weakness.

* Qu. ' confidence ' '? — Ed.

202 TUK RICH POVERTY ; OR,

And let us labour to have a spirit of sanctification, to have our souls more
and more renewed to trust in God, or else all other courses are nothing ;
for when it comes to particulars, if the soul be not sanctified there is no
correspondency and harmony betv/een it and God. How can an unsancti-
fied soul close with a holy God ? Therefore we must labour to be good
and to do good ; as the apostle Peter saith, ' to commit our souls to God
in doing good,' 1 Pet. iv. 19. Let us labour to be good, to get grace, and
then there will be a harmony, a connaturalness between a holy God and a
holy soul ; and then we shall trust and rely upon him easily. Where there
is not grace in the heart subduing corruptions, when it comes to particulars,
whether to trust in God or man, then the soul will rebel, and scorn as it
were trusting in God. It will go to wits, to friends, to favours, and other
helps.

Let a man be never such a scholar, of never so great parts, when he
comes to any shift, if he have not grace in him, he will disdain out of
pride of spirit, as every man naturally is deeply proud, to rely upon con-
science, and upon the truth and promises of the word, and upon such
terms. These be weak things. No ; he will stir hell rather, and earth,
and all means. He accounts it greatness that he can do so. It is only
the holy man that will cleave fast to God, and to his truth and word, for
he relisheth it. The Spirit that penned the Scriptures and the promises,
it rules in his heart, and therefore he relisheth them. Oh these promises
are sweet ! And as he can trust the promises, so he can trust God ; be-
cause, as I said before, he is acquainted with them. Where there is not a
gracious heart, there will never be a believing, trusting heart.

There is in God infiniteness of ways of supply, let us labour therefore
for a inudent heart, to learn the skill of fetching out of God for all neces-
sities. As our want is, so let us fetch supply from some attribute of God,
and some promise answerable. This is the wisdom of the saints of God.
Are we in extremity ? Then with Jehoshaphat say, * We know not. Lord,
what to do : but our eye,s are toward thee,' 2 Chron. xx. 12. Are we per-
plexed that we want wisdom ? Then go to God, who is infinitely wise.
Consider him so, for he is fit for the soul ; nay, he exceeds all the maladies
and wants of the soul. There is not only abundance in God, but redun-
dance and overflowing abundance. Therefore there wants but skill to
make use of what is in him for our turn. Are we wronged ? Go to God,
that ' judgeth righteously,' Jer, xi. 20 ; consider him in that relation, as a
God 'to whom vengeance belongeth,' Ps. xciv. 1. Are we overpowered?
Go to God, * that made heaven and earth,' to the Almighty God, Ps.
cxv. 15. Are we troubled with the sense of sin? Go to God, that is
* the Father of all mercy, and God of all comfort,' Rom. xv. 5. Are we
cast down, and no man regards us ? Go to God, that styles himself ' the
comforter of the abject,' 2 Cor. vii. 6. This is the skill that faith learns,
not only in gross to think of God, but to think of God answerable to all
occasions ; as indeed there is somewhat in God to satisfy the soul in all
extremities whatsoever. I beseech you, let us learn to do this. What a
happy condition is he in that hath learned to inure his soul to trust in God
for the removal of all ill, and for the obtaining of all good ! He is sure of
all. * For God is a sun and a shield ;' a sun for all that is good, and a
shield to defend us from all ill. He is so to all that trust in him. He is
a * buckler, and an exceeding great reward,' Ps. xviii. 30. He is a buckler
to award* and shield ill from us, and an exceeding great reward for all
* That is, == ' ward off.'— G.

TBE POOR man's riches. 263

that is good. Therefore in how happy a condition is the soul that is
acquainted with this blessed exercise of trusting and believing in God ! It
is a state wherein we shall be kept from all ill — I mean from the ill of ills :
not from the ill of sense, but from the ill of ills, and from the poison of all
ill. Whatsoever ill we endure, there shall be comfort mixed with it ; and
it is better to have it than the comfort. What a comfort is this ! ' They
that trust in the Lord shall want nothing that is good. He that trusts in
the Lord is as a tree planted by the river side,' Jer. xvii. 7, 8. He shall
alway have his leaf flourishing and bear fruit, because he is at the well-
head. He that hath the spring can never want water, and he that is in the
sun can never want light. He that is at the great feast can never want pro-
vision. He that hath learned to trust in God, and can improve what is in
him, what can he want ? Oh it is the scarceness of our faith that we want
comfort ! As our faith 'is, so is our comfort ; and if we could bring a thou-
sand times larger faith to grasp the promises, we should carry away larger
comfort and strength.

NOTES.

(a) P. 241. — ' In the original it is poor, and mild, and gentle.' Cf. Dr Henderson
in loc.

(b) P. 246.— 'As St Augustine .... saitli, "We should boast and glory of no-
thing, because nothing is ours." ' A frequent acknowledgment in the ' Confessions,'
with varying phraseology. G.

SPIRITUAL MOURNING.

NOTE.

' Spiritual mourning' forms Nos. 14 and 15 of the Saint's Cordials in first edition,
1629. It was withdrawn from the after-editions along with others, to give room for
another series which had been published in the intervals. The title-page will be
found below.* Cf. notes Vol. IV. page 76, and V. page 176. G.

* SPIRITVAL

MOVRNING :

In Two Sekmons.

Wherein is laid open,

f Who are spirituall mourners, and what it is to mourne
spiritually.
Thai all godly mourning is attended with comfort.
- How spirituall mouriiing is known and discerned from
other mournings.
Together with the meanes to attains it, and the tryall
thereof, in sundry instances, <f"c.

[Wood-cut here, as described in Vol. IV. p. 60.]

Vprightnes Hath Boldnes.

LONDON,

Printed in the yeare 1623.

SPIRITUAL MOURNING

THE FIRST SERMON.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. — Mat. V. 4.

We have spoken of spiritual poverty the last day, when we shewed yon
that it is a grace especially in the understanding.* We must now come
to the affections. And first, our Saviour hegins with mourning, which fol-
lows immediately from poverty of spirit. Mourning is a wringing or
pinching of the soul upon the apprehension of some evil present, whether
it be privative or positive, as we speak ; that is, when a man finds that
absent that he desires, and that present which he abhors, then the soul
shrinks and contracts itself, and is pinched and wringed ; and this is that
we call mourning. Now this always comes to pass in poverty. Such as
the poverty is, such is the mourning ; and therefore our blessed Saviour's
order is very good in joining mourning to that poverty of which we have
spoken. Thus much for the order.

Now for the words. There are, you see, two things in this verse.

1. A point. 2. A' proof.

Our Saviour's point shall be our point of doctrine at this time, because
we would not speak one thing twice. Therefore we will lay down the point
in our Saviour's own words, and that is this, that spiritual mourners are
blessed men. He is an happy man that is a good mourner. He that can
mourn for his sins, he is in an happy case. That is the point.

Now in the prosecution of this, we must fii-st expound it ; secondly, prove
it ; and then apply it to you, as our Saviour doth to his hearers, Luke vi. 21,
' Blessed are ye that mourn.'

1. For the first, I may expound the point and the text both under one.
You see the proposition what it is, every good mourner is in an happy con-
dition. Here let us consider a little the terms to exphcate them. Who is
the party in speech ? ' Blessed is the mourner,' saith Christ in Matthew ;
' Blessed,' saith he in Luke vi. 21, ' are the weepers.' Both these, mourn-
ing and weeping, they are fruits of the same tree and root. The root is
sorrow and sadness, opposite to joy ; the bud mourning, opposite to mirth ;

* The reference is probably to 'Eicb Poverty,' from Zephaniab iii. 12, in the
present volume. — G.

268 SPIRITUAL MOURNING.

the blossoms weeping, opposite to laughter. The matter then is this, that
they that are spiritual mourners are happy men ; that is, those men that
have not only cause and matter of sorrow and mourning, for so all have,
but have also a heart to mourn. There is in them a disposition of mourn-
ing, they can do it, they will do it occasionally, they do perform it inwardly,
they bleed, which is termed mourning outwardly, they demonstrate it, as
our Saviour instanceth in weeping. These be the parties here spoken of
that are mourners. Now what is the thing that is affirmed of them ? that
is, blessedness and happiness ; the mourners are blessed and happy. As
mourning is in [it]self, it is not simply good, but because it makes way for
happiness. To call mourning happiness simply, were to speak a contra-
diction, to term misery felicity, and to make felicity misery. But he that
mourns aright, is happy in a sense, he is in a happy estate and condition.
A mournful state is a happy estate ; happy, because this mourning is an
argument of some happiness and goodness for the present, and a pledge of
more for the future. It makes way for comfort and future happiness, and
therefore he is happy.

Obj. You see the proposition now, how it is mournful men are happy
men. But now for the quantity and extent of this proposition. Is this,
will some men say, universally true ? Are all men that mourn blessed
men?

Am. Nothing less. There is a carnal mourning, when a man mourns
for the presence of goodness, and for the absence of sin, because he is
restrained and cannot be so bad as he would be. There is a natural
mourning, when a man mourns upon natural motives, when natural losses
and crosses are upon him. There is a spiritual mourning, when a man
mourns in a spiritual manner, for spiritual things, upon spiritual motives,
as afterwards we shall shew ; when he mourns, because good things that
are spiritually good are so far from him, and spiritual ills are so near to
him. This is the mourner that Christ here speaks of, and this is the
mourning that hath the blessing. Other mourning may occasion this
through God's blessing, and may give some overture to this mourning, but
the blessing belongs to the spiritual mourner and the spiritual mourning.
Mourning must be expounded as poverty. Every poor man is not a blessed
man, except his outward poverty bring him to spiritual poverty. So every
mourner and every weeper is not therein blessed, except his outward losses,
and crosses, and occasions, be an occasion through God's blessing and a
means to bring him to spiritual sorrow and mourning. Thus now you see
then the meaning of the proposition ; it is thus much, that he that mourns
spiritually and hoHly, why he is in an happy estate and condition. This
is the meaning of the point.

2. Now let us proceed to the second thing, the proving of it. For proof
we need go no further than our Saviour's own testimony ; yet we have
besides his testimony some proofs and some reasons to give. For his
testimony : ' Blessed,' saith our Saviour's own mouth, ' are they that
mourn ;' and Luke vi. 21, ' Blessed are they that weep.' This weeping
and this mourning must be understood of spiritual weeping and spiritual
mourning, as we told you, and then the testimony is very clear, every man
that so mourns is an happy man. Our Saviour doth not only speak this,
but prove it, 1. By an argument drawn from the contrary: Luke vi. 25,
* Woe be to you that laugh now.' These carnal mirth-mongers are in a
miserable estate, and therefore spiritual mourners are in an happy estate.
2. He confirms and backs this by a reason here in the text : ' Blessed are

SPIRITUAL MOUENING. 269

the mourners, for they shall be comforted.' This reason will not hold in
all kind of mourning and all kind of comfort. It is no good argument to
say, Blessed is the man that is in pain, for he shall be refreshed and relieved ;
blessed is the man that is hungry, for he shall be fed and have his wants
supplied. But yet this argument holds good, ' Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted ;' namely, with God's comforts, with the comforts
of the Spirit, with the comforts of the word, the comforts of heaven. The
comforts of God are beyond all the miseries and sorrows that a man can
endui'e in this life ; and though he do mourn and weep for them, yet not-
withstanding, the comforts, the wages, will so far exceed all his sorrows
that he is happy in this. He cannot buy spiritual comforts too dear, he
cannot have them upon hard terms possibly. Though they cost him never
so many tears, never so much grief, and sorrow, and heart-breaking, yet if
he have them, he is happy in having them upon what rate soever.

Yea, further, spiritual mourning carries comfort with it, besides the
harvest of comfort that abides the mourner afterwards. There are first-
fruits of comfort here to be reaped, so it is that the more a man mourns
spiritually, the more he rejoiceth ; the more his sorrow is, the more his
comfort is. His heart is never so hght, so cheerful, and so comfortable,
as when he can pour forth himself with some sighs, groans, and tears,
before God. So that then our Saviour clears the point, that they are
happy men that mourn in an holy manner. Howsoever mourning be not
comfort, and misery be not happiness, yet notwithstanding, affliction and
mourning may argue an happy estate and blessed condition, and that in
these respects following, which we shall name to you, which shall serve for
reasons of the point.

1. First, He that mourns spiritually /mf/i a good judgment, and therefore
is happy. Spiritual afibction it argues a spiritual judgment and under-
standing. For the affections they work according as they receive informa-
tion. A creature that is led by fancy, hath brutish affections ; a man that
is guided with matter of reason hath rational affections, as we term them ;
but a man that hath his mind enlightened and sanctified hath holy afiec-
tions. So that holy mouming and holy affections argues a sound mind, a
holy, settled, and spiritual judgment, and that is an happiness.

2. Secondly, It argues a good heart too.

(1.) First, A tender and soft heart. For a stone cannot mourn, only the
fleshy heart it is that can bleed. He that then can mourn spiritually, he
hath an evidence to his heart, that his heart is soft, that he hath a tender
heart, and that is a blessing, and makes a man a blessed man.

(2.) As his heart is tender, so also it is sound. It is a healthful soul
and an healthful temper, as I may speak, that he hath. For mourning
proceeds out of love and hatred ; out of agreement, if it be a spiritual
mourning, with that which is good, and out of a contrariety and opposition
between us and that which is bad. So that he that can mourn after good-
ness, and mourn for sin and badness, if it be spiritual mourning, this man
shews he hath a good heart, his heart agrees with that which is good, his
heart disagrees, and stands in opposition, and hath an antipathy to that
which is bad. And this is a right constitution and temper of soul, that
makes a man happy. There is one reason then why he that mourns
spiritually may well be deemed an happy man, because he hath a sound
judgment, and because he hath a sound and a soft heart too.

2. Secondly, As he is happy in the cause, so he will be happy in the
effect too of his godly mourning. For godly sorrow and mourning brings

270 SPIRITUAL MOURNING.

forth blessed fruits and effects ; the apostle in 2 Cor. vii. 10, seq., delivers
divers of them, as there you see.

(1.) First, this is one thing in spiritual mourning ; it secures and excludes
a man from carnal and hellish mourning ; yea, this orders him and saves
him harmless from all other griefs. A gracious mourning, it moderates
natural grief, and expels and drives out carnal and hellish grief and sorrow,
like good physic, that heals and strengthens nature, and expels that poison
that is hurtful to nature. The more a man can mourn for his sins, the
less he will mourn for other matters ; the more heavy sin lies upon his
soul, the more lightly he can bear other losses and crosses, whatsoever
they be. So that this mourning prevents a great deal of unprofitable
mourning. When a man bleeds unseasonably and unsatiably, the way to
divert it is to open a vein and to let him blood elsewhere, and so you save
the man. When a man pours forth himself unseasonably and unprofitably
in needless tears, griefs, and cares, the only way is to turn his tears into a
right channel, to make him mourn for that which is mournful, and to set
him to weep for that which deserves tears. If he weep in an holy and
spiritual manner, he shall be secured and preserved from poisonful and
hurtful tears.

(2.) Secondly, This is another happy effect of godly mourning, that
spiritual and godly mourning alway doth a man good and never any hurt.
Worldly sorrow, saith the apostle, causeth death. It hurts the soul, it
hurts the life, it hurts the body of a man ; but spiritual sorrow, on the
other side, causeth life. The more a man dies this way, the more he lives ;
the more he weeps, the more he laughs ; and the more he can weep over
Jesus Christ, the more lightsome and gladsome his heart is, and the more
comfortably he spends his time. This brings him joy, this brings him
peace, this brings him evidence of God's love, this brings assurance of
pardon, and so this makes way for life, and doth a man no hurt at all. '

(3.) Thirdly, This spiritual and godly sorrow and mourning is a sorrow
never to he repented of, as the apostle there implies. All other sorrow a
man must unsorrow again. When a man hath wept and blubbered, and
spent a great deal of time in passionate tears, in cursed tears, in fro ward
tears, in revengeful stomachful tears, he must blot out these tears with new
tears ; he must unweep this weeping, and undo his mourning because he
hath thus mourned ; he hath reason to repent for his sorrow. But when
a man sets himself apart to weep over Christ, and sees his sins for the
dishonour that is offered to God's name, and that his mourning is holy and
spiritual mourning, he shall never have cause to repent of this time that is
so spent, although he have spent many days and hours in that action.

(4.) Last of all, spiritual mourning works repentance, saith the apostle :
that is to say, it works reformation and amendment ; it sets a man further
from his sin, and brings him nearer to God, and nearer to goodness ; it
works in himself partly, and in regard of others partly, those fruits that
the apostle there mentions in the Corinthians. Saith he, what striving,
what diligence and speed did you make, namely, to find out arid to censure
the incestuous person ; and then this sorrow will make a man nimble to
find out sin, to reform and redress abuses in himself, in his house, and his
place in what he can. In the second place, it gives a man defence and
apology to speak for himself, and to say, Though I live amongst a polluted
people of uncircumcised hearts, yet I join not with them in their sins, I
mourn for them, I censure them, I blame them, as the Corinthians did the
incestuous person. And for himself, he is able to hold up his head with

SPIEITUAL MOURNING. 271

comfort, and to say, It is true I have corruptions, but here is my apology,
I bewail them. It is true I have thus and thus sinned, but here is my
defence, I am son-y. I found place for sin, I find place for sorrow also, I
confess it, I bewail it, I repent of my sin. Thus he clears himself.

(5.) Further, Spiritual sorrow, it icorks indignation against sin in himself
and in others ; a zeal against all impediments in himself and in others, the
desire to God's ministers and word ; that revenge that the apostle speaks
of there, and that fear of hazarding one's self into the like occasions of sin
for the time to come. In short, the fruits and eifects of godly sorrow are
exceeding blessed, exceeding many, and thei-efore in this sense, in this
respect, he that mourns spiritually is an happy man.

3. Thirdly, He is happy in regard of the event and issue of his mourning,
because all shall end icell tvith him, and all his tears shall one dag he xviped
away, and jog and gladness shall come in j^lnce ; yea, he is happy in this,
that spiritual mourning it is always accompanied with joy : that is an happy
estate that tends to happiness. Things are termed from the term in their
motion. That is an happy estate that is attended with comfort, that ends
in comfort, and shall be swallowed up of it at the last. Now this is the
state of the spiritual mourner ; while he doth moui'n he hath comfort, and
comfort because he can mourn. This doth a Christian heai't more good
than all the good of this world, when he can get himself apart and shed
tears for his sins, and bewail the miseries and the sins of the time, and
take to heart the dishonour of God's name. This, I say, doth more refresh
and glad his soul than any outward comfort in the world. There is a
laughter which Solomon speaks of, that makes a man sad, a carnal laughter ;
the heart is sad whilst the face laughs. So I may say the contrary, as
there is joined sadness in some laughter, so there is laughter in some sad-
ness. Carnal laughter makes a man sad while he laughs ; but spiritual
mourning, it makes a man merry when he mourns ; the more he mourns,
the more merry he is. Again, as for the present his mourning is attended
with comfort, so in the end it shall end in comfort. There is a sorrow
that shall end in darkness, that wastes a man as fire and heat wastes a candle,
and so goes out of itself and vanisheth into smoke, into nothing. There
is a sorrow and grief that ends in a greater sorrow, and that empties itself
into eternal misery, but this spiritual sorrow shall have an end. For there
shall be an end of our sorrow. If it be holy sorrow, we shall not ever
mourn, but the tears shall one day be wiped from all our eyes, it shall have
an end, and an happy end too. For all our sorrow shall end in joy. For
our garments of ashes we shall have garments of light and gladness, and
* everlasting joy shall be upon our heads,' Isa. xxxv. 10. So then, whether
we respect the cause of our mourning, or the fruits and effects of it, whether
we respect the close and event of it, it is clear that every man that can
mourn spiritually is in that respect in a very happy and blessed estate and
condition. We have given you now the point. You hear what our Saviour
speaks is but reason, though he seem to speak a paradox to flesh and
blood when he saith, every spiritual mourner is an happy man. Now then,
my brethren, let us apply the point a little.

Use 1. If it be an happy man that mourns aright, we have reason, first,
to bewail our unhapjnness ; unhappy time and unhappy men may we well
say, touching ourselves, that vary so much from the mind and prescription
of our blessed Saviour. 'Blessed,' saith our Saviour Christ, ' are they that
mourn, for they shall be comforted.' * Woe to you,' saith he, ' that now
laugh.' We, on the other side, say, Woe to them that here mourn ; happy

272 SPIBITUAL MOURNING.

are they that can here laugh and be merry. And as we vary in our judg-
ment from our Saviour, so much more we vary in our practice from his
direction and counsel. The Lord, when he gives direction that will bring
joy and comfort, he bids us humble ourselves, cast down ourselves, afflict
ourselves, &c., James iv. 10. God saith, 'Humble 3'ourselves that you
may be exalted.' , We on the other side say, Exalt ourselves, and we shall
not be humbled. God saith. Throw down yourselves ; we say. Secure our-
selves. God saith. Afflict yourselves, and then you shall have comfort.
The Lord saith, Let your laughter be turned into mourning, that so you
may laugh. We on the other say, Let our mourning be turned into
laughter, that so we may not mourn. And therefore when any grief, natu-
ral or spiritual, begins to breed or to grow on us, presently we betake our-
selves to company, to sports and exercises, that may drown the noise of
conscience, that may put out of our minds motives to spiritual grief and
sorrow, and that may provoke us to carnal, or at the best to natural mirth
and rejoicing. Thus we vary from Christ's directions quite in our practice;
nay more, vary further from the practice of the saints of God. We vary
from the very time and season in which we live. For behold, it is a time
of darkness and blackness ; it is the year of God's visitation, as the pro-
phet speaks ; it is the time of Jacob's trouble, as Jeremiah speaks. For
howsoever we have peace at home, the church hath war abroad ; howsoever
we have health, yet the pestilence rageth abroad. Though we have plenty,
there is poverty and misery abroad in the bowels of the church in other
nations. Now then, when the time calls for mourning, and weeping, and
lamentation, we vary quite, and are like to them in the prophecy of Isaiah.
* In that day,' saith God, Isa. xxii. 12, seq., ' did I call for mourning and
sackcloth : and behold here is slaying of oxen, and killing of sheep, and
making merry, and provoking ourselves to all kind of jollity and security.'
Further, we vary from the practice of God's children in like cases. They
gave themselves to spiritual mourning upon due occasion. We read of
Nehemiah, when he heard that the church was distressed and afflicted
abroad, though he lived in credit, and in honour, and in safety him.self at
the court, yet he betakes himself to God in private, and there he fasts, and
prays, and mourns, and there he sues to the Lord to be merciful unto
Jerusalem. We read of good honest Uriah, he refused to go to his house
and to refresh himself with meat and drink, upon this reason, because the
ark of God and the captain of the host lay in the field in tents. This was
the affection and the mind of God's servants of old : they wept with those
that wept, and they mourned in the mourning and lamentation of the
church. But now, my brethren, we forget the afflictions of Joseph abroad.
And, as it is said of them in Amos, * We drink wine in bowls, we stretch
ourselves on our beds,' vi. 7 ; we give ourselves to music and mirth, and
we take not to heart the distresses of the church. So likewise for the sins
of the time, we see what the saints did of old. Ezra, chap. ix. 10, when he
heard of the sins that were committed among the people — the holy seed had
mingled themselves with the cursed nations, whom the Lord had cursed —
he betakes himself to prayer, and to mourning, and fasting ; and there
assembled to him many well affected men, and they trembled before the
Lord, they cast down themselves, and wept in a solemn manner.

Thus the saints of God did for the sins of their time. But now, my
brethren, what do we ? We look on other men, and wonder that rulers
and magistrates and public persons do no more. But what do we ourselves
in private ? My brethren, do we lay to heart our own sins, the sins of our

SPIRITUAL MOURNING. 273

kindred and acquaintance, of our families, the sins of our neighbours, of
our towns, of our places where we dwell and have our abode? Had David
lived in these days, he would have washed our streets with rivers of tears,
as he speaks of himself, Ps. cxix. 136, to have seen such pride, such im-
piety ; to hear such oaths and blasphemies so frequent and so rife amongst
us. We, on the other side, my brethren, see, nay, we act and commit,
gross sins ; we hear, nay, we utter, cursed speeches and blasphemies and
oaths, and commit abominable sins, and yet there are not rivers of tears,
nay, not a tear almost shed amongst us. This is that we are to complain
of now, that we do what we can to put off mourning, and to bereave our-
selves of true comfort ; and this dryness and emptiness of tears, were it
only of temper of body, and not from distemper of soul, the matter were
more sufferable and more pardonable. But what shall we say for ourselves,
when we have tears at command for every trifle, for every bauble, and have
not tears for sin and for the dishonour of God ? If a friend cross us,_ we
can weep ; if an unkind word be uttered, we sob and grow sullen ; if a
loss or a cross befall us, we can pour out ourselves in carnal weeping and
lamentation : but for the sins of our souls, for the sins of our friends, for
the sins of our nation, for the unkindness that we offer to God, for the
contempt that is cast upon his name, we cannot shed a tear ; and were it
now that we were ashamed of these things, the matter were less. But,
alas ! we take not to heart that we have not hearts to mourn, and we
labour not so much as to grieve because we cannot grieve. In our carnal
natural grief, we stand and plead, we think we have reason to mourn : I
have lost such a friend and such a friend. We think we have cause to
bewail our estate in regard of such outward misery as befalls us. But we
see no cause, no reason to weep over Christ for the sins we have committed
against God.

We think many times carnal sorrow, which in truth is but poison, will
do us good, a great deal of ease ; and when men have crossed us, and dis-
appointed us, or dealt unkindly with us, we think we will go and weep^ it
out ; and when we have cried and blubbered a while, we think that we give
ease to our souls, and content to our hearts. But when we come to
spiritual mourning, which only is comfortable mourning, we think that
undoes us. Many a man thinks he forfeits all his joy, all his peace, all
his liberty, all his happiness, and he shall never see a merry day again in
this world if he gives way to mourning for sin, to sound repentance, to
works of humihation, and examination of his own heart and ways. _ And
hence it is that we do what we can to hold possession against the Spirit in
sorrow and mourning. Oh misery ! Oh unhappiness of ours ! When we
take things in this manner, when we take poison for cordial, and cordials
to be no better than poison, no marvel though we have no more comfort of
our tears and of our mourning ; for certainly our mourning for the most
part is not a blessed mourning. We mourn not for sin, but for sorrow ;
we mourn not for corruption, but for crosses : not because we have dealt
unkindly with God, but because men deal unkindly with us. This is not
a blessed mourning, and therefore it is that we find no comfort in it.

Use 2. Well, in the next place, we have another use, to take Christ's
direction for comfort. Who would, who can be without it ? Life is death
without comfort. Every man's aim is to lead a comfortable life. Mark
the way that Christ chalks out: 'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall
be comforted.' Do you believe Christ's word ? Do you believe that he
knows what he Baith ? Can you rest in Christ's testimony and in his pro-

VOL. VI. s

2*74 SPIRITUAL MOURNING.

mise ? Then, if e\er you will have comfort in your hearts, or in your lives,
or in your ends, begin here, begin with spiritual mourning. Now that this
you may do, we must,

1. First shew you how spiritual mourning differs, and is discerned from
other mourning.

2. How it is gotten.

3. How it is exercised.

1 . For the first of this : Spiritual mourning /s known hij tJie ohjeds. Such
as the object is, such is the faculty. Spiritual mourning hath spiritual
objects, either materially or formally, as they speak in schools. This
spiritual mourning is busied about spiritual goods and spiritual ills. Spi-
ritual good, either the chief or universal good, which is God ; or subordi-
nately good, as grace and comfort, the ordinance and worship of God.
Spiritual ills, whether they be simply ill, as sin and impiety ; or painfully
ill, yet with relation to sin, as a fruit of sin, and as a pledge of God's
wrath and displeasure against it. We will instance in this first.

For, first, if a man would know whether his sorrow be spiritual sorrow
or no, let him see how he mourns for the absence of spiritual good things,
how he mourns for the absence of God, the chief good. That is spiritual
sorrow, when a man mourns because he hath lost God in his graces, in his
communion, and in his comforts. This was a proof of David's sorrow that
it was spiritual, because, as the Sci'ipture speaks elsewhere, he lamented
after the Lord, and mourned after God. ' My soul,' saith he, ' thirsteth
after the living God,' Ps. xlii. 2. He hungered after God, he was pained,
and pinched at his soul when he could not see God, and enjoy God as for-
merly he did. This was the reason of that idolater, Judges xviii. 24, seq.,
when his idols were taken from him, he cried after them : when a rude fel-
low asked him what he ailed, ' What ail I ? ' saith he ; * you have stolen away
my gods, and taken away my ephod, and do you ask what I ail? what more
have you left me ?' What he speaks of his false gods, a true Christian heart
may conclude much more of the true God. If the true God be departed
from him, — stolen he cannot be ; — but if he be departed from him, that he
have driven away God in Christ by his sinful and rude behaviour, that God
hides his face, that he communicates not himself in his comforts and graces
as formerly he hath done, this goes to his heart, this punisheth him, and
grieves him more than any thing in the world. And so for inferior goods,
a man that mourns spiritually, he mourns because he sees the want of good
things, the want of faith, the want of grace, he finds a spiritual want, the
absence of things spiritually good. A man that mourns spiritually, he
mourns because the means of grace is taken from him, because he sees not
his teachers, as the prophet saith, because there is no vision ; there is
none to say, How long ? as it is in Haggai i. 4 : * How long shall the
house of God lie waste ? the ways of Zion are unfrequented : the Sabbaths
of the Lord are despised.' He mourns because he is kept away from the
house of God, where he used to taste of the fat things of God's house, and
where he used to see him in his beauty and in his glory.

So this is spiritual mourning, when a man mourns because God in his
love and in his comforts leaves him, and his countenance shines not upon
him ; because the word of God and the gi-acc of God spreads not, that it
stirs not sensibly within him, as formerly it hath done. And so likewise
for ills. A man that mourns spiritually, he mourns for spiritual ills, to
find so much corruption, so much pride, so much hypocrisy, so much self-
love, so much worldliness, so much naughtiness in his own heart. This is

SPIRITUAL MOURNING. 275

his grief, as it was Paul's. He cries, tired, ' wretched man that I
am, who shall deliver me from this hody of death ?' Rom. vii. 24. He
weeps, and takes on more for the corruption of his nature, for the sins in
himself, and in the people of God, than for persecution and disgrace, than
for losses and crosses that befall him. So when a man mourns for sin,
that he takes to heart the sins of his family, the sins of the state and of the
church that he lives in, this is spiritual mourning. And so also when a
man mourns for outward things spiritually, say he be poor, say he be
afflicted, say he be famished, say he be persecuted, he t;irus all his griefs
to godly grief; he apprehends Clod's displeasure. In these he apprehends
and sees sin : in these he considers his crosses, in the cause, and in the
root of them, in sin ; and so he mourns for sin and the cause. This is
spiritual mourning. Now when a man thus mourneth for the absence of
spiritual good things, and for the presence of spiritual ills that lie upon
him and others, then he is said to mourn spiritually, and so he is a blessed
man. This is all we can stay to say for the point.

Quest. Now, in the next place, how shall a man do to get this spiritual
mourning ?

Ans. First, He must labour to have an heart capable of grief and sorrow
that is sjnritual, a tender and soft heart. He must see that he have a
disposition to holy mourning, able and inclinable so to do, when just
opportunity and occasion is offered. Now how shall a man got this tender
heart ? Why surely he must go to God in his means and ordinances, who
hath promised, as you heard, in the covenant, to take ' the stone out of our
hearts, and to give us soft and fleshy hearts.' This a man must do for it.
Withal he must be ready in the next place, when God hath given him a
tender heart, to stir up the graces of the Spirit that are in him, to raise up
his affections and his sorrow, and to provoke himself to mourn and to
lament upon due occasion. Thus that he may do, he must,

1. First, Consider of a method that he must use ; and then,

2. Of motives to stir him up thereunto.

1. For method. (1.) First, He must have respect to the time, that he do
not let his heart lie fallow too long. Jer. iv. 3, it is said, ' Plough up your
fallow ground.' Ground, if it lie long unploughed, it will require much
pains to rear it and fetch it up, but if it be oft done, it will be the easier.
So it is with the heart of man ; he must not let his heart be fallow too
long, but take it into task ever and anon, and labour to keep the flesh ten-
der, and raw, and fresh, as we may say ; and then upon every occasion it
will be ready to bleed and to pour forth itself. To this end a man should
every day be exercised in the duty of a godly mourning, every night reckon
for the passage of that day, and say with thyself, What sin have I commit-
ted ? What have I done ? What have I said ? What have I seen this day ?
What have I heard this day, that might be matter of humiliation and grief
to me ? And so work this upon the heart, that it may be turned to tears
of godly sorrow.

(2.) Secondly, For the time, a man must he sure to take God's time.
When God calls on him, when God gives them the heart, and is ready to
close and to join with him, then take the advantage, set upon godly mourn-
ing, when the Lord hath ransacked thy heart, when the Lord hath dealt
with thee in the ministry of his word, when he hath applied himself to thy
soul and conscience, and detected thy corruption, and shewed thee thy sin,
and hath wounded thy heart in public with afiiictions, in private with
terrors and fears. So when the nature of grief is stirred by the occasion

276 SPIRITUAL MOURNING.

of the word, then take the advantage of this, seize upon this for the king's
use ; set upon sorrow whilst it is there, turn it into the right stream, into
the right channel ; turn it for sin, weep for sin, and not for outward losses
and crosses. Thus much for the time.

2. Secondly, There is another thing to he done for the order, and that
is this, that a man must be sure to give over carnal mirth and carnal mourn-
ing, if he will mourn spiritually. His carnal laughter must be turned into
mourning, as James speaks, iv. 9 ; and his carnal mirth must be turned
into spiritual mourning too, or else he will never come to spiritual mourn-
ing. But we cannot stand upon that. We will only touch the motives,
because the time is run out, and so conclude for this time. Consider
well what are the motives to set us to work to mourn, and to mourn
spiritually.

The motives are many. He that will mourn must look to these. There
is one rule generally for mourning, and that is this : He that will mourn
spiritually, he must apply himself to God's means and motives only. There
be that tell us of a course of getting of sackcloth and haircloth, and I know
not what, to work godly mourning. This makes men superstitious, and
not humble. He that is an holy mourner, he will follow God's directions,
he will work upon his motives and reasons, and no other ; and therefore
he mourns, because God bids him so mourn, for the Scripture bids us look
upon Christ, not as he is in pictures, but in the word, presented upon the
cross, and to weep, and to mourn, and to bleed out our souls there for
our sins committed against him, and so to look upon him whom we have
pierced, and to weep for him, as it is Zech. xii. 10. That is in general.

Now, in particular, consider these motives.

1 . It is needful for us to mourn.

2. It is seasonable for us to mourn.

3. It is profitable. And,

4. It is comfortable.

Of these we should have said something more largely if the time and
strength had given leave, but seeing both fail, we will only touch them now,
and leave them till we can further prosecute them.

1. First, It is needful to mourn in a spiritual manner. Whosoever hath
sin must mourn. Let him take his time and place, whether he will do it
in this life or in that which is to come. Sin must have sorrow, that is a
ruled case ; and he that will not willingly mourn, shall, will he or nill he,
in another place. And therefore, my brethren, we see there is a necessity
laid upon us in regard of our sins. It is needful also in regard of others,
to draw them to it by our example and practice. I know not how it comes
to pass, but we are all fallen into a wondrous sleepy age, a time of security.
Men bless themselves in their courses. They secure themselves in a formal,
ordinary kind of religion and profession, with an ordinary stint of holy
duties, when there is no powerful, hearty, sanctifying actions done in secret
for our own sins, and the sins of the times. Why, sith* that all men sleep,
let us be wakeful, and since others have need of provoking to this duty, let
Christian men lead them the way. Let their faces, and apparel, and enter-
tainment, and all their carriage and behaviour, speak mourning and lamen-
tation to other men. Secondly, As it is needful in regard of others, so
also it is needful in regard of ourselves too ; for who doth not find in him-
gelf a wondrous proneness to sin, and aptness to take infection from
others ? Who finds not in himself a readiness to close with others in their
* That is, ' since.' — G.

SPIRITUAL MOURNING. 277

sins ? The Wcay to preserve us is to mourn. That will preserve us from
the infection now, and from judgment hereafter. How was Lot preserved
in Sodom ? By hearing and seeing they vexed his righteous soul, &c.
While Lot mourned for their sin, he was free from sin ; while he mourned
for their impiety, he was free from the judgment. Because he did not
partake of their wickedness, therefore he was not plagued with the wicked.
If then we would not be infected by sin, if we would not be wrapped up in
the common calamities and judgments, this course we had need to take, we
must fall to mourning for our own sins and for their sins.

2. Secondly, As it is needful, so also it is very seasonable. The very
time tends that way, as it were ; the season is the time of weeping ; the
church of God weeps abroad. It is the time, as I told you, of Jacob's
trouble. Oh the sighs, oh the tears, oh the griefs and sorrows that cover
and overwhelm the people of God in other nations, and other places !
The prophet David could say, his right hand should forget to play, rather
than he would forget Jerusalem, Ps. csxxvii. 5 ; but I know not how, what
for play, and for sport, and for ease, and feasting, and one thing or
other, we forget Jerusalem, we forget the misery of the church in other
places. "Well, now they pray, and call upon us, as far as Prague, as far as
Heidelberg, as far as France, that we would take notice of their afflictions,
and of their miseries ; at the least, that we would comfort them so far as
to mourn for them.* As it is seasonable in regard of the afflictions of the
church, so in respect of provoking of others of this nation. For sin is now
grown to a fulness, to a ripeness. Oh the oaths that are sworn in one day,
in one city, and in one town ! Oh the lies that are uttered in one fair, in
one market daily ! Oh the sins that are committed by high and low of all
degrees within the compass of twenty-four hours ! Who is able to reckon
them ? And the sins that are committed with an high hand against the
knowledge, and against the light of the gospel, and against the express
letter of the law, the word of God, should not these things cause us to
mourn ? They would cause a David to weep rivers of tears, and shall not
we weep at all ?

3. Thirdly, As it is seasonable, so it is ^n-qfitahle ; for godly mourning it
never hurts, it alway helps. Carnal sorrow leaves a man worse than it finds
him. It makes him more sick, and more weak, than it finds him. Spi-
ritual sorrow leaves him better. He that can pour forth his heart before
God, he that can go charged and loaden to heaven, with his heart full of fear
and full of grief and full of sorrow, as ever it can hold, that man shall return
back again loaden with joy, and peace, and comfort. Thou shalt never in
thy life go before the Lord in sorrow and grief, and there spend but one
quarter of an hour in tears, and prayer, and lamenting before the Lord, but
thou shalt find thy heart somewhat lightened, somewhat eased and refreshed
in so doing. Well then, since it is profitable for us, let us do it. As it is
profitable for the soul, so it is for the body. This is the only means that
is left to save ourselves. In Ezek. ix. 2, you know one was sent, with a
pen and inkhorn, to mark out the mourners, that they might be saved in
the common plague and judgment ; and that God might be gracious and
merciful to them. It is the only thing that is now left us. We must
betake ourselves to prayer, and tears, and to lamentation, if we would not
have judgments to fall upon us. This is profitable for the whole state, if
there be some righteous men. If there had been but ten of these mourners
in five cities of the plague,! tbey had been upheld all for their sakes. The
* Cf. Memoir, Vol. I. pp. Ivii.-lix.— G. f Qu. ' plain '?— Ed.

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righteous man upholds the land and nation ; they do beat back the judg-
ments ; and therefore, for the common good, let us mourn.

4. Lastly, It is very comfortable. It doth wondrously refresh a man. It
is that that kills a Christian man, when he remembers many times the com-
forts he hath had heretofore when his heart was enlarged ; and if he could
pour forth himself, and weep as once he could have done before the Lord,
he would part with all the world for an heart so tender, and so soft, and so
enlarged. There is no comfort to this in a Christian, he prizeth it above
all other comforts in this world. Then he thinks himself in a safe estate,
in the best case, in a comfortable estate and condition, when he can
mourn best, when he can weep and sorrow for his sins, and weep over
Christ.

Well, my brethren, let us consider these things, and now apply them to
ourselves, and say, my heart, thou hast need to mourn, it is time for
thee to mourn ! my soul, it is profitable for thee to mourn ! my
soul, it is comfortable for thee to mourn ! If thou desire thine own profit,
thine own ease, thine own comfort and safety, if thou desire life and salva-
tion, betake thyself to this course ; gather thyself from company ; go alone,
and set before thee thy sins thou hast committed, how bad thou hast been
to God, how good he hath been to thee, what a kind Father he hath been,
and what a froward child thou hast been. Lay these together till thou hast
provoked thyself to some sorrow and tears. Thus if we could do, we should
find comfort more than worldlings find in laughter, and in their merriment
and sports ; we should find more comfort this way than we shall in cold
and comfortless weeping for crosses, and lamenting for afiiictions ; but, for
that and other uses of the point, I am enforced, whether I will or no, to
defer till next time.

SPIRITUAL MOURNING.

THE SECOND SERMON.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. — Mat. V. 4.

The lesson here is thus much, they that mourn in an holy manner, they are
in an happy case. The proof of this doctrine is this, ' they shall be com-
lorted.' We heard the last day, he is an happy man that can mourn in an
holy manner ; he is happy in his judgment. A holy afi'ection argues an
holy understanding. He is happy in his heart and inward temper, for
holy mourning comes from a kind of spiritual softness and tenderness.
He is happy in the efiect of his mourning. Holy mourning will keep out
carnal and worldly sorrow. It is a sorrow that a man needs never to
sorrow for again ; it is such a sorrow that tends to life and salvation.
Worldly sorrow tends to death. He is happy in the issue of his mourn-
ing, for mourning makes way for rejoicing. He that now weeps shall one
day laugh. Nay, for the present, the more he mourns in an holy manner,
the more solid and substantial is his present comfort.

It is our folly and misery both, therefore, that we so utterly mistake the
matter. We give way to a sorrow that will hurt us, and keep possession
against that which will do us good. We see reason, as we imagine, why we
should grieve in a passionate manner ; we can see no reason why we should
mourn in a spiritual manner. It is our unhappiness we can find time and
leisure for the taking in of poison, that tends to death ; we can find no
place fit, no time, no opportunity for the receiving of a preservative that
will bound and keep the heart against all poison. Of this point we have
already said something too. What remains to be spoken of it in further
uses we will gather in anon, and touch upon it in the prosecution of a new
point if we can.

We pass therefore from the doctrine here delivered, ' Blessed are the
mourners,' and come to the reason of it, ' for they shall be comforted.'
Let us join these together, and see how they do depend. The point will
be thus much —

Doct. 1. That spiritual mourning it ends in spiritual mirth. He that can
mourn spiritually and holily, he shall undoubtedly and certainly be com-
forted. Holy tears, they are the seeds of holy joy. You see our ground

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in the text for this point. For the clearing of it further, let us know that
we have good security for it.

1. The promise of God ; and then, 2. The experience of God's people.

The best proofs that may be. First, the Lord undertakes in his promise
two things touching our comforts :

1. That all our godly sorrow shall end in true comfort. The next is,

2. That all our godly mournings are attended and accompanied with com-
fort for the present.

1. For the first of these, you know the promise, sorrow and weeping shall
fly away, and joy and gladness shall come in place, Isa. xxxv., last verse,
which place will refer you to many more. God hath made a succession of
these things, as of day and night. His children's day begins in the night
and in darkness, and ends in the day. After sorrow comes comfort ; after
they have mourned in a holy manner their sorrow shall be taken from
them, and gladness shall come in the stead, Isa. Ixi. 3. The Lord Jesus
is appointed of his Father to give beauty for ashes, the garment of glad-
ness for the garment of sackcloth and mourning. God hath promised it
shall be so ; God hath appointed Christ, and fitted him, and enabled him
to this word, that so it may be. Not to insist on this, our mourning shall
not only end in comfort, but it carries comfort along with it for the present.
God hath undertaken it shall be so, speaking of the afflictions that should
come upon the state : ' And my servants shall be full, but he,' the wicked
and hypocrite, ' shall be hungry : my servants shall rejoice, but he shall
mourn : my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall howl
for heaviness of heart,' Isa. Ixv. 13. Lo, when afilictions come upon a
state, such afflictions as make the wicked cry and howl, then God in judg-
ment remembers mercy for his. They shall have matter of joy and triumph
even then. So in Isaiah Ix., the beginning, he tells them, calling on his
church, ' Arise,' saith he, ' and shine ; put on brightness and glory ; the
Lord shall be a light unto thee in darkness.' When the church is enclosed
with darkness, nothing but misery and affliction round about her, then the
Lord shall shine* light, that is, he shall give comfort to his church. All
their mourning and sorrow, their outward afilictions, shall cause them in-
wardly to mourn in spirit. God will take off" the garment of mourning, and
put on the garment of gladness in his due time. In the mean time, he will
be a light to them in the midst of darkness. Thus God undertakes, this
is the promise. Now, God promiseth nothing but what he purposeth, and
God purposeth and promiseth no more than he will perform. Hath he
said it, and shall he not do it ? It shall certainly come to pass. All the
counsels of God shall stand ; every woi-d of God is pure. All the promises
of God are 'yea and amen.' They are certainly made good to the hearts
and consciences of all God's people through Christ. Since therefore God
hath said it, it shall be thus ; sith Christ hath said, ' Mourn, and you
shall be comforted,' we may build upon it that so it shall be.

^ 2. To this promise of God let us add the c.rperience of GocVs people. We
will speak of the church in the bulk, and the particular members of the
church they have all found this true, they have reported it by their own
experience, and passed their word for God that it shall be thus with God's
people. ^ Thus the church is brought speaking in Micah vii. 8, ' Rejoice
not against me, mine enemy : though I be fallen, yet shall I rise ;' com-
fort will come at the last. Nay, while I sit in darkness, the Lord for the
present will be a light and comfort to me. Thus you know again what the

* Qu. 'send'?— G.

SPIRITUAL MOURNING. 281

churcli speaks, Ps. cxxvi. 6, from their own experience, ' They that sow in
tears shall reap in joy.' There is a seed that doth fail sometimes and dis-
appoint our hopes, but this seed it never fails, it falls upon good ground,
it will take root. If the seed-time be wet, the harvest will be dry. ' They
that sow in tears shall reap in joy ;' and in another, Ps. xcv., the latter
end, ' light is sown to the righteous,' and he expounds what he means by
light, joy to the upright in heart. So that though this seed lie covered for
a time, yet notwithstanding there is light sown for the righteous, and they
shall be sure to have it. Thus the church speaks and gives her word for
God. So likewise you may see it in particular Christians. David always
found this ; Ps. xciv. 19 saith he, ' In the multitude of the thoughts of my heart,
thy comforts did glad my soul : ' when I was perplexed in my thoughts, my
thoughts were tossed and tumbled up and down in mine own meditations,
seeking here and there for comfort. Even then in this distress, and dis-
traction, thy comforts, thy double comforts, as the word implies,* these
comforts did refresh and glad this soul. So likewise Saint Paul, in 2 Cor.
i. 4, he tells us that God did comfort him in all his tribulations ; and as his
sorrows did abound, so his consolations did overtop and superabound. And
hence we may say, as it were, of the saints of God, that which they
extracted from their own experience and particular case, that God comforts
the abject, those that are cast down, as Paul saith, 2 Cor, vii. 6, and that
of David, Ps. xxx. 5, ' Heaviness may continue for a night, but joy comes
to the righteous in the morning.' We see then that if we look to the
experience of God's people, they from their own experience give testimony to
this truth, and give us to understand that true spiritual mourning shall end in
true spiritual joy and comfort. If all this suffice not, let us consider of these
reasons, and then we shall see that it is but reason that we should do so.

1. The first reason is drawn from the nature of sorrow and mourning.
Sorrow is a kind of an imperfect thing, as it were. It is not made for itself,
but for an higher and for a further end, to do service to something else,
as it fares with all those that we call the declining affections. Hatred is
servant to love ; fear doth service to confidence ; so likewise doth sorrow to
joy. For God hath not appointed sorrow for sorrow's sake, but to make
way for joy and true comfort. The physician doth not make a man sick
for sickness sake, but for health's sake.

Many men's lives have been hazarded by carnal joy, as well as by worldly
sorrow. And they that know anything in stories, they know many a man
hath been taken away, his life hath leaped out of his mouth, as it were,
by reason of extraordinary laughter and carnal joy. But now, the joy of a
Christian man, a spiritual joy, it is a safe joy. It hurts no man, but doth
a man good ; it settles a man's mind, it strengthens his thoughts, it per-
fects his wits and understanding. It makes him to have a sound judgment :
it makes for the health of his body ; it makes for the preservation of his
life ; it doth a man good every way. There is no provocation in it, there
is no danger in it. Thirdly, as a Christian's joy is best in that respect,
that it is the safest, so in this, that it is the surest joy. For this joy is an
everlasting joy. The rejoicing of the wicked it is for a season, it lasts not
long ; but the joy of the righteous, it is a constant joy in the root, and in
the cause and in the matter of it. It shall never be taken from him.
Indeed, everlastingness stands at the end of both kinds of joy.

The wicked hath a joy, and there comes something after it that is ever-

* The word teing "T|''Q')nDJ^) consolationes tuce in the plural. — G.

282

SPIEITU.^ MOURNINa.

lasting ; but that is everlasting shame, everlasting pain and anguish. The
righteous he hath some joy here, and there is something that is everlasting
that follows at the end of that ; but that is everlasting glory, everlasting joy.
It is swallowed up of eternity. Further, the joy of the righteous is a more
rational joy than the joy of the wicked : that is but brutish, as it were. A
righteous man rejoiceth in matters that are worthy of his ]oy, those things
that he hath reason to be glad of. He rejoiceth that his name is written
in heaven ; he rejoiceth that Christ hath taken upon him his nature ; that
the Spirit of God the Comforter dwells in him in the graces of the Spirit,
&c. But now the wicked man, his is an uni'easonable joy ; he rejoiceth
where he hath no matter nor cause of joy. You see many times madmen
sing, and dance, and leap, and shout, and take on. Will you term this
joy ? Alas ! this proceeds from distemper ; not that they have cause to be
merry, but it is from distemper that they so rejoice, if you term it mirth.
That which Solomon saith you may say of the laughter of the wicked, ' it
is madness.' He laughs, and he can give no reason for it ; he rejoiceth for
that which he hath no reason to rejoice in ; he rejoiceth in the creature, he
rejoiceth in himself, in his own wit, in his own worth, in his own strength.
He rejoiceth many times in his shame, in his torment, in those things that
tend to his utter ruin and destruction. The righteous, then, hath the start
of the wicked for matter of comfort and joy. He hath a more solid, a more
safe and sure joy, a more sweet joy, a more reasonable joy a great deal
than the other hath. As he is beyond him in his joy, — ■

So, in the next place, he is beyond him in his sorrow too. Our life must
have comfort and sorrow. It is compounded of sweet and sour. As the
year is compounded of winter and summer, and the day of day and night,
so every man's life is made up of these two. He hath some fair and some
foul days, some joy and some sorrow. Now as the righteous is beyond the
wicked in his joy and comfort, so he is beyond him in his sorrow. First,
his sorrow is far better ; it is a more gainful, a more comfortable sorrow than
others' is. They are beyond the sorrows of the wicked in all the causes and
in all the circumstances of them.

(1.) First, The sorrow of the righteous it proceeds /^o»i a better spring
and fountain than the sorrow of the wicked. The sorrow of the godly, it
comes from a sound mind, from a pure heart, from an inside that is puri-
fied from hypocrisy, from self-love, from private respects. Whereas, on the
other side, the sorrow of the wicked comes from distemper of brain, from an
utter mistake. He takes that to be matter of sorrow, which is no matter
of grief ; he takes that to be matter of great grief that deserveth but a few
tears, &c. Again, his sorrow comes from distemper of heart, from pride,
from passion, from cursedness of heart and spirit, that he cannot stoop.
It proceeds not from love to God or to mankind, but out of self-love, and
from the miry puddle and filthy spring of pride and passion and error, &c.

(2.) Secondly, The sorrow of the righteous, as it hath a better spring, so
it is busied and taken up about better objects, about better matters. A wicked
man howls and cries, and takes on many times for a trifle, for a bauble ;
yea, many times, because he is disappointed and crossed in his lusts, in his
base sins. The child of God finds himself somewhat else to do than to
weep and to cry, and take on for trifles and vanities. He looks up to God,
and is sorry he hath displeased him. He turns his tears into the right
channel, and sets them upon his sin. He weeps for spiritual losses and
crosses, for pubUc miseries and calamities, and he takes to heart such
things as are worthy of a man's sorrow, and such as will perfect the aflec-

SPIEITUAL MOURNING. 283

tions, as every affection is perfected from the goodness of the object about
which he works.

(3.) Thirdly, The sorrow of the righteous is better than the sorrow of
the wicked in regard of the vianner of their mourning. For the mourning
of the righteous is a composed kind of sorrow. He mourns in silence ; he
weeps to the Lord ; he carries it with judgment and discretion. His sorrow
is a moderated sorrow ; he holds it within banks and bounds. "Whereas
the sorrow of the wicked is a tempestuous, a boisterous, a furious kind of
mourning and lamenting. He knows no mean. It is without hope. He
observes no decorum. He forgets himself what he is, what he saith, what
he doth almost. His mourning is little better than frenzy or madness.

(4.) Last of all, they differ much in the end and upshot of their mourning.
Godly sorrow, it doth a man good. It humbles him, as we said. It drives
him from all purpose, from all practice of sin ; it makes him resolute against
sin. On the other side, it draws him into the presence of God ; it brings
him before the Lord in the ordinance of prayer, in the ordinance of fasting
and humiliation. This is his sorrow, and therefore it shall end well ;
whereas, on the other side, the sorrow of the wicked, it is a kind of vexing,
tormenting sorrow, a painful sorrow, a despairing sorrow ; a sorrow that
drives a man from God, and is mingled many times with much murmuring,
sometimes with cursing, sometimes with oaths and blasphemies. This
sorrow of the wicked, it hath not so good an issue. There is great differ-
ence when a woman breeds a disease, and when she breeds a child. When
a woman breeds a disease, there is no good comes of that : there is much
pain, and no ease follows ; there is much sickness, and no comfort in the
close. But when she breeds a child, though there be much pain, yet it
quits the cost when the child is born : ' She forgets her pain, because a
child is born into the world,' John xvi. 21. So it is in the state of the
godly and the wicked. The wicked are ever in travail, as we read in Job,
viii. 22 ; he is always travailing with fear and with grief, with passion,
discontent, and horror, &c., but then he never brings forth any fruit ; and
this travail, it never ends in comfortable birth. But it is contrary with the
godly. He travails with pain, and with sorrow, and with fears ; and some
tears, and sighs, and groans he hath for the present ; but in the end there
is a dehverauce. He is delivered of his fears, and of his pain, and his
sorrows ; and then comes joy and peace, and all his tears are wiped away ;
and then his sorrows are forgotten, and joy comes, and takes possession.
So that the joy of the godly it is far better than the wicked's joy ; and the
sorrow that falls upon the good and the bad is far different. Both must
needs sorrow in this vale of misery. But the sorrow of the godly, it is an
hopeful sorrow, it is an healing sorrow, it is a comfortable sorrow, it is a
fruitful sorrow ; whereas the sori'ow of the wicked is full of despair and
vexation, and the further he wades in, the more danger he is in of drowning.
Still, the righteous begins in the night, but ends in the day : saith David,
' Heaviness may continue for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,' Ps.
XXX, 5. The wicked sets forth in the morning, but then there comes dark-
ness at night ; he begins merrily and happily, but then the issue is most
miserable.

Well then, to shut up this first reason, for information —upon which we
have stood the longer, because carnal judgment will not credit this point, —
it is clear, the righteous man in prosperity is better than the wicked, and
in adversity better. Whence he hath occasion to rejoice.

A surgeon doth not lance and sear men because he would put them to

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pain, but because he would give them ease. The Lord of heaven delights
not in wounding and grieving of his children ; but therefore he calls them
to sorrow, that so they might come to comfort. Sorrow, then, never comes
to its full end that it was made for ; it obtains not its perfection, till such
timers it convey a man to joy. And therefore, since it is appointed and
ordained to this end by God, it is certain it shall arrive at joy, and obtain
it in the end ; for God doth nothing in vain, he will bring all to perfection.

2. The second reason may be drawn from the nature of this sjnritual
comfort and jo>j that we speak of. For spiritual joy is very strong : ' The
joy of the Lord is your strength,' as he saith, Neh. viii. 10. A strong
thing is spiritual joy, and therefore it will overmatch, and overcome, and
di-ink up, as it were, all our sorrows and fears in due time, as the sun
overcomes the darkness of the night, and the fogginess of the mist in the
morning. Indeed, natural joy may be overmatched with natural grief, at
the least with some grief, because we are more sensible of grief than we are
of those comforts : they more infect the sense. And because natural grief
weakens nature, therefore it is not able to make resistance ; and therefore
we say many times, natural grief overmatcheth natural comforts; much
more will carnal grief, and other grief, overcome carnal joy, because these
are weaker than natural, having less root in nature, and less subsistence in
that way. But it is not so with spiritual joy and comfort, for these now
have their root in God, and come from his strength ; and therefore these
will bear down before them all sorrow, all heart-breaking, all grievance
whatsoever in due time. This is a joy that cannot be taken from us. It
is a joy invincible, it is a joy impregnable. No sorrow, no affliction on the
outside, no grief on the inside, can strip a man of spiritual joy and comfort,
if it be in any strength. So then there be two reasons why we should think
that all our spiritual mourning will end in joy and comfort : for joy wiU
swallow it up at the last, it will be too hard for it ; and because, again,
mourning is made but for joy. Therefore, when joy comes in place, that
must give place.

3. A third reason may be drawn //•o??z the cause of oii.r sjnritual mourning
and spiritual joy ; for these are fruits that grow both from the same root.
Spiritual joy and spiritual mourning, they come from the same fountain,
from the same Spirit. The same Spirit it causeth us to weep over him
whom we have pierced, and it causeth us also to rejoice in the Lord whom
we have pierced : ' The fruit of the Spirit is joy,' saith the apostle. Gal.
V. 22. The same Spirit manageth and guideth both the one and the other.
Carnal passions and affections they oppose one another, they fight one with
another, because they are carried on headlong, without any guide or order
at all. But spiritual affections they are subordinate and subservient one
to another ; the one labours to further and to advance another. Thus the
more a man joys, the more he grieves ; and the more he grieves, the more
he joys. Joy melts the heart, and gives it a kindly thaw ; grief, on the
other side, it easeth the heart, and makes it cheerful and lightsome.

4. Lastly, a reason may be drawn from the effects of godly mourning. If
they be considered, it will be cleared, that he that mourns spiritually shall
end in comfort at the last ; for this spiritual mourning, what will it do ?
First, it takes off the power and strength of corruption. It weakens sin,
it pricks the bladder of pride, and lets out our corruption. Spiritual
mourning it takes down a man, it humbles him ; and an humble heart is
always a cheerful heart, so far as it is humbled. Spiritual mourning, again,
makes way for prayer. For spiritual mourning sends a man to God. It

SPIRITUAL MOURNING. £85

causeth him to utter himself in petition, in confession, and complaints to
his Father ; to pour out himself to the bosom of his God in speeches, in
sighs, and tears, in lamenting one way or other. All this tends to comfort.
The more a man prays, the more he hath comfort. ' Pray,' saith Christ
' that your joy may be full,' John xvi. 24. If a man will have fulness of
joy, he must be frequent in prayer. Now, the more a man mourns spiritually,
the more he prays ; and therefore the more he is filled with true joy. A^ain'
this spiritual mourning, it is a wondrous help of faith. It is an hopeful
mourning ; it helps a man's faith in the promises touching remission of
sins. He weeps for it ; he sues out his pardon in Christ's name. It helps
his faith in the promises of our Saviour : ' Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted.' If they ' sow in tears, they shall reap in joy,'
&c. Now, the more a man's faith and hope is furthered, the more his joy
IS furthered. Still, the apostle speaks that they should rejoice in believin^^.
The more a man believes and reposeth himself upon the promises, the
precious promises of the word, the more his heart is joyed and comforted
still. Now, the more he mourns, the more reason he hath to believe that
that furthers his faith ; and therefore it advanceth his joy and comfort.

Let us look, then, upon the reasons that hath been given, and the case
is clear enough. Whosoever he be that mourns in an holy manner, that
man shall certainly, first or last, be comforted. This mourning tends to
comfort. It is made to draw it on. His joy will overtop his sorrow, and
overcome all at last. Joy and mourning go together. They are branches
of the same root, and therefore the more we do the one, the more we have
the other. This godly mourning it makes way for prayer, it makes way
for faith ; and therefore it makes way for comfort and consolation. This
point then being thus cleared, let us a little make some use of it to ourselves.
The use is threefold.

Use 1. First, Here is one use of wformation touchinq others. Since those
men are certain to have comfort in the end that niourn holily, here we
may learn to determine now that grand question that hath been so long
controverted, namely, who is the happiest man in the world ? And for
the deciding of this question, we must not go with it to Solon, to Plato,
or to the philosophers, but come to a judge, the Lord Jesus. And what saith
he to.the point ? Blessed and happy, saith he, are they that mourn. His
reason is, « for they shall be comforted.' So that here, then, is the trial
of a man's state that is blessed. The signs of a blessed estate are these
two in this verse. The first is, if so be he mom-n well ; the second, if he
speed well for his comfort. So that that man, then, that hath the best
sorrow and the best joy, that man then is the happiest man. Now the
Christian man is this man. He hath the advantage of all other men, in
his joy and in his sorrow ; and therefore he is the only happy man in this
world. First, for his joy, happy is he, saith Christ, ' he shall be comforted'
with those comforts that a man cannot buy too dear, though he shed
many tears for them, though he spend many nights in sighing and mourn-
ing and lamenting. Though it cost him much he cannot over-rate it, he
cannot over-prize it. This comfort cannot be bought at too high a rate.
Now what is this comfort ? What is the Christian's joy better than another
man's joy ? In many respects,

(1.) First, This joy is a more solid joy than the joy of the wicked. The
wicked nian rejoiceth in face, but not in heart ; the wicked's joy is but a
blaze, it is but a flash ; his rejoicing is like the crackling of thorns under
a pot, that the Holy Ghost tells us makes a blaze and is gone in an instant.

286 SPIRITUAL MOURNING.

This joy is rather in show than in substance. His joy is not rooted in
himself. It is not bottomed upon any sure foundation, but it is rooted out
of himself, in the creature. A wicked man hath no matter of comfort within
himself, but his comforts they hang upon outward things. His comfort
sometimes lies in the bottom of a pot ; sometimes it lies in the bottom of
a dish ; sometimes in the heels of an horse ; sometimes in the wings of a
bird ; sometimes in some base lust, or in some such filthy sin. Here lies
the comfort of a wicked man ; but now the comfort of the godly is not so.
The joy of the righteous, it is a massy and a substantial joy. His afflictions
indeed are light and momentany, but then his joy is everlasting, as I shall
shew anon. It is a joy that hath substance in it. The joy of the wicked,
at the best, it is but a little glazed, it is but gilt over, but it is naught
within ; but the joy of the righteous it is a golden joy, it is beaten gold, it
is massy and substantial and precious. As we said before, the root of his
joy he hath it in himself, he hath matter of comfort in himself. There is
faith and grace, there is truth. Nay, it is not rooted in himself only, but
the root of it is in heaven, in his head, in Christ. He pitcheth his joy upon
God, and therefore his joy is such a joy, as will hold out in the wetting, and
will bear him through all pressures, all burdens, and all discouragements
whatsoever.

(2.) Secondly, The joy of the righteous, as it is a more solid, so it is a
more safe joy than the joy of the wicked. A carnal joy is many times
prejudicial to a man in his safety, therefore we may safely conclude, the
godhest man is the happiest man. He is in the best estate and condition,
that gives most way to godly sorrow, and that gives least way to carnal sor-
row. That is one use.

Use 2. Now the next use is to the godly. First, a word of exJiortation,
and then a word of consolaiion. A word of exhortation to God's people.
That since all their sorrow shall end in comfort, and is attended with com-
fort, that therefore God's people should lay open themselves and give way to
godly sorrow as much as possibly they can. Stop up, my brethren, all the
passages, dam them up if you can, that make way for worldly sorrow and for
carnal grief, for this will come but too fast upon you ; but, on the other side,
pluck up the floodgates, and open all the passages, and give all the way to
spiritual mourning and to godly tears. Do this even for your own sakes.
Conceive that it is your happiness to mourn in an holy manner, since your
Saviour tells you, that they are happy and blessed that do so mourn. Con-
ceive that your comfort lies in your godly sorrow, as our Saviour saith ;
' blessed' are they in this, namely, in this respect, because ' they shall be
comforted for their mourning.' Believe it, brethren, one day, one hour
spent in godly mourning, a few tears shed over Jesus Christ, and over a
man's sin, when he is in health, when he is in peace, when he hath no out-
ward cause to move him to tears and sorrow, it will more satisfy the soul,
and more quiet the conscience, and more relieve and refresh the heart,
than all the mirth, and all the delights, and all the treasures, and all the
comforts of this world will do. Why, then, if you would be comforted,
mourn ; if you would laugh, weep ; if you would have cheerful hearts and
lightsome spirits, if you would live comfortably and die comfortably, give
way to this mourning, so it be spiritual mourning, as much as you can.

Ay, but what is spiritual mourning ? We spake somewhat of it the last
day. Thus, in short, because I see the time will much prevent us.

(1.) First, Labour to mourn after spiritual things and spiritual persons.
That is spiritual mourning when it hath spiritual objects. First, for persons.

SPIF.ITUAIi MOURNING. 287

Is it SO, that tlie Lord witlidraws himself from thee in his comforts, that thy
soul doth not feel them, doth not find them, as sometimes thou had done ?
Lament after the Lord, weep and cry after him, and say, unhappy man,
where have I lost my peace '? How have I behaved myself, that my Father
will not speak to me ! that he will ntjt look to me ! And as you see a
little child that hath lost the mother, it follows crying. My mother is gone,
I know not what to do, so let God's children do in this case, weep and
take to heart this loss of losses, when thy rude, and unkind, and unholy
behaviour hath ahenated and estranged thy Father from thee, that he will
not look on thee.

(2.) Again, Is it so, that the Lord withdraws himself in his ordinances,
that ive hear not the voice of his word, that we see not our signs ? ' There is
not a prophet among us to tell us how long,' Ps. Ixxiv. 9 ; let us then set
ourselves to mourn, as the church in that psalm. ' Lord, we see not our
signs.' Lo, how a man may be free from his misery, whatsoever befalls.

(3.) Is it so, again, that in our mourning, we see the church of God,
those sorrouful-spirited men, that theij are distressed and afflicted ? Let us
weep for these too. Is the church of God carried into captivity ? Let us
cry out with the prophet of the Lord, ' My belly, my belly, I cannot be
quiet ; give me way to weep ! Oh that I could shed rivers of tears ! Oh that
my head were a fountain of waters, that I could weep day and night for
the daughter of my people !' &c., as in Jeremiah everywhere.

(4.) Is it so, that the church of God is foiled at any time h/ the adver-
saries / Let us take on, as Joshua did, ' rend your garments, and cast
down ourselves before the Lord, and say, What shall we say, when Israel
shall turn their backs and fly before their enemies?' Joshua vii. 8. Is it
so, that the host of the living God is reproached and railed on by the
Rabshakehs of this world ? Take the matter to heart, as Hezekiah did. He
goes before the Lord, and rends his clothes, and spreads the blasphemies
before him. ' Lord,' saith he, ' it is a day of darkness, and blackness: the
children are come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth,'
Isa. xxxvii. 3.

(5.) In short, is the church of God in heaviness and lamentation ? Are
the armies of God in the field in danger and distress ? Let every man,
that takes himself to be a member of the church, and a member of Christ,
take the business to heart, and weep with them that weep, and lament
with them that mourn. Let your mirth and your peace, which is carnal,
in these days, be turned into mourning and lamenting, bear a part with the
church of God, with that Uriah say, ' Shall I eat and drink, and solace,
when the ark of God, and the camp, and the captain of the host lies in dis-
tress, and misery in the camp ?' 2 Sam. xi. 11. So for spiritual matters.
Is it so, that we hear that sin reigns everywhere ? that we hear blasphemies,
that we see pride and oppression, that we are eye-witnesses, or others
report to us the horrible injustice, the monstrous filthiness, the unsufferable
ills that cry mightily to heaven against our dwelling and against our nation ?
Let us here give way to mourning, and say with the prophet, Oh that I
could weep! ' Oh that my head were a fountain of tears !' and with David,
< I shed rivers of tears, because men kept not thy law,' Ps. cxix. 136. Thus,
my brethren, let us labour to be much in spiritual mourning, to mourn
for the loss and for the absence of holy things, and to mourn for the pre-
sence and confluence of sinful persons and sinful things, to mourn for the
sins of our land, for the sins of the church abroad, for the sins of our
neighbours ; moiu-n for the sins of our towns, mourn for the sins of our own

288 SPIRITUAL MOURNING.

families, mourn for the sins of our yoke-fellows, mourn for the sins of our
children, mourn for our own sins. Oh happy is that man that can pour
forth himself in godly tears. The more he mourns thus, the more he shall
be comforted.

2. Secondly, Your mourning will be spiritual mourning, in case you draw
your tears from a good fountain: that they come from a good rise, a good
spring. When a man's zeal is for the zeal of God's glory, out of love, and
mercy, and compassion to men's souls, out of a desire of men's salvation,
of his own, and others' ; and when he mourns out of hatred of ill, and of
sin, and mourns for the love of grace and goodness, this is a spiritual
mourning. Mourn now, and work upon these motives, and not upon private
motives and respects ; but let our sorrow come out of hatred of sin, and
out of love to goodness, out of zeal to God's name, out of love, mercy, and
compassion to men's souls. And this is holy and spiritual mourning.

3. Thirdly, Your mourning will be spiritual, in case it have spiritual
effects. Let us look to those. Holy mourning, it sets a man further from
sin. Holy mourning, it draws a man nearer to God. It makes him pray,
as it is said of them. Judges ii. 4, 5, they wept ; and the place bare the
name of weepers: *Bochim,' 'they wept' and offered sacrifice. Prayer and
tears go together. Sacrifice and sorrow go together. Now when our
mourning is such mourning that it makes us not sit in a corner in a sullen
manner, but makes us bestir ourselves in praying and running to the Lord,
it makes us wrestle with God, as Jacob did, in tears and sorrow, this is
holy and spiritual mourning. This is the mourning that we describe to
vou from the objects, from the causes of it, and from the effects of it.
This mourning is an healing mourning. It is a sweetening mourning. It
is a comfortable mourning. It is a hopeful mourning. It will do a man
much good. Therefore give way to this to the utmost of your power, as I
said before. Let every man say to himself, I must mourn, I may mourn,
and I will mourn.

(1.) First, I must, because God bids me, because the time calls for it.
Therefore I must. Because my own need requires it, therefore I must
•weep. I find I am dead, and drowsy, and sluggish ; and carelessness and
sleepiness will creep upon me except I stir up myself to mourn. And then,
as I must, so

(2.) I may. David, and Paul, and Jeremiah could weep upon spiritual
occasions. So may we in case we will go to the same means, to the same
God. Our nature is capable of godly sorrow. We see in them who was
their Father, even God, who gave them a tender heart. He can give it us.
You know the Spirit of God is a spirit of weeping. It is a Spirit of sup-
plication. It will make us to look to him whom we have pierced, and to
weep, &c., as it is Zech. xii. 10. Now Christ hath promised that he that
asks for this Spirit shall have it.

Let us go to the Lord, and say, It is possible that we should have so fit
and tender hearts to shed tears for our own sins and the sins of others, as
David and others before us have done. It is possible for me so to do if I go
to God and ask such a heart. God hath promised that he will give his Spirit
if we call for it ; and therefore let us call and desire the Lord to smite our
rocky hearts, as Moses smote the rock, that he would cause water to gush
out of thee as he did out of the rock.

(3.) Thirdly, As we may, so let us resolve that we ivill do it. Let na
come to resolve. Well, I see the time calls for it ; I see my brethren and
myself have need of it, I will do it, I will set upon it ; I will take a time

SPIRITUAL MOURNING. 289

•when I will cast up all my reckonings between God and myself; I will
take a time to unweep my former carnal sorrow ; I will take some time
from my carnal laughter for this. Take the time now, defer it not ; now
it is a fit time. You use to cast up your shops at this time of the year,
then come and reckon how your estate stands, my brethren ; cast up your
shop with God ; rifle your souls and see how matters stand betweexi Goci
and you ; see whether you go backwards or forwards. Mouna there, and
bewail your sins that you have committed against God, and the sins of the
time ; and one day spent in this manner between God and thy soul will do
thee more good than all the feastings and merriments, and all the sports
that you meet withal this time. That is for the second use.

Use 3. Now there foUoweth a third. Here is a word of comfort to those
that mourn — comfort in regard of the whole church, and comfort in regard
of the particular members of the church. For the whole church ; here is
comfort for the people of God in affliction. It is the time of Jacob's
trouble, saith Jeremiah, but he shall come out, Jer. xxx. 7. He hath a
time of trouble, but he shall be delivered, he shall have a time of comfort ;
he is weak, but then his Kedeemer is strong. Jacob hath strong friends
and strong means. All that is in heaven is for Jacob, for the churcli,
I mean ; all the saints in earth pray, and these prayers are not in vain.
There will come comfort out of them at the last. Fear not, then, worm
Jacob, saith the prophet, fear not; though thou be as a worm, be not
afraid, Isa. xli. 14.

Ohj. Oh, but Jacob's grief is more than his fear.

Ans. Why should the people of God grieve ? Do they grieve because
the enemies insult ? Let them answer the enemies in the words of the
church: 'Rejoice not against me, mine enemies: for though I be fallen,
yet shall I rise again ; and while I sit in darkness, God shall be a light to
me.' Do they grieve because they are in darkness, and are encompassed
with many sorrows and distresses ? Hear what the Lord saith, Isa. Ix. 1,
* Arise, and shine ; put on glory ; I will cause light to shine in darkness.'
And saith another place, ' thou tossed and afflicted with tempest, I will
make thee walls of carbuncles,' Isa. liv. 11. They were before of ordinary
stone, now they shall be made of precious stones ; the Lord will make the
conclusion of his children an happy conclusion. Mark the righteous, the
end of his life is peace ; and so the end of eveiy particular temptation, of
every particular affliction, is peace. All shall end well with him. It shall
be well on his side.

Here, then, is comfort for the church. The church of God is afflicted,
but she shall be comforted. She is despised, but she shall be honourable
and magnified, and her enemies shall lick the dust of her feet. The church
of God is opposed and put hard to it. But her Redeemer is mighty, and
her hoofs are made of brass, and her feet of iron, to trample to dust and
powder all the enemies that rise up against her. She is in the everlasting
arms, as Moses speaks of the almighty God there, Deut. xxxiii. 27. She
finds rest there ; she finds peace and comfort. In the greatest miseries,
this is comfort for the church. The Lord will comfort her and her
mourners too : Isa. Ivii. 18, ' He will comfort Sion and her mourners.'
All Sion, the church of God, shall be comforted ; all the friends of the
church that mourn in her mourning, and that take to heart her sorrows
and desolation, they shall be comforted too. All that mourn with her shall
be comforted. This is comfort for the church in general. Now, for every
Christian, for every member in particular, here is comfort.

VOL. VI. T

290 SPIRITUAL MOURNING.

Are we, my brethren, such as do mourn, and mourn spiritually ? Do
we mourn for the breach of God's Sabbath? for the contempt of his word?
for the abuse of his sacraments ? for the contempt of his name ? Do we
mourn for the church that is under captivity, under the sword ? Do we
mourn that Christians be under temptations, under misery, under afflic-
tions ? Do we mourn because the work of grace goes on no better in the
hearts of God's people and in our own hearts? Do we mourn for our sins,
and for the sins of our brethren ? especially those that profess religion, is
this the matter of our sorrow, my brethren ? Here is comfort, you shall
be comforted; the Lord hath passed his word that it shall be so. All these
tears are registered and put into the bottle of God. He keeps them as a
precious water, and there is not a tear shall be forgotten. AH this is seed
sown. If we sow in tears, we shall reap in joy. Harvest follows seed-
time, so joy follows tears. It shall be so. ' There is light sown for the
righteous,' Ps. xcvii. 11. It may be under the clods, it may be buried for
a time, it may seem lost, but it will sprout at the last, and there will come
a crop out of it. Well, here is comfort. All the sorrows of the godly, all
his griefs, all his sighs, all his wants, all his heart-breaks, if all these turn
to spiritual mourning, they shall all turn to his advantage and comfort in
the end. Nay, his sorrow for the present hath comfort along with it, and
the more he sorrows, the more he rejoiceth, and the more true comfort he
hath still. The more a man can weep over Christ, the more bitterly he
can weep, the more sweet Christ will relish to him. The more grief and
Borrow he brings to the word and to the ordinances of God, the more true
sweetness he finds in the word and carries from the word. And the more
he can bewail himself before the Lord in his wants, in his bankruptness in
grace, the more he is advanced, and enlarged to comfort and joy by the
Lord, But for the wicked, woe to him ; for ' in laughter his heart is sad,'
saith the text ; he laughs in the face, but his heart mourns. On the other
side, happy is the spiritual mourner ; in his mourning, his heart laughs,
as it were. He hath matter of joy in sorrow, as the wicked hath matter of
mourning in mirth. Woe be to the wicked, for all his joy shall end in
sorrow ; the end of that mirth is sadness in spirit, saith Solomon ; but
happy is the holy mourner. All his tears shall be wiped away, all his
sorrows, all his griefs, all his fears shall end in comfort and consolation
at the last.

Ohj. Oh, but how shall I know that my mourning is spiritual mourn-
ing ? I suspect it much this way. And why ? First of all, my sorrow
begins in the flesh ; I never mourned, I never went to God in prayer and
fasting, or any exercise of religion, till God tamed me and took me down
with crosses and afflictions ; then when he laid load on me, I went to it,
and not before.

Sol. Well, my brethren, thus it may be : Thy sorrow may begin in the
flesh ; but, if it end in the Spirit, all is well. It may be a Christian's sorrow
was first occasioned by crosses, by worldly sorrow, and worldly respects ;
but if he improve his sorrow, and turn it to holy sorrow, if he turn the
stream into the right channel, if he set his grief, his indignations, his tears
upon sin, all shall end well at the last, though the beginning were not so good.

Obj. Ay, but, will some say, my sorrow is more for outward things than
for spiritual matters. I grieve when I am sick, but it is for pain more than
for sin. I mourn when I am poor, but it is because I am poor in purse,
because I am poor in state, rather than in regard of my spiritual wants ;
and so for other matters too.

SPIRITUAL MOURNING. 291

Ans. My brethren, this is easily granted. There is no floor here, but
there is chaff as well as wheat with it. There is no precious mine here so
rich, but there is some dross as well as good gold, as well as good metal.
Ho it is with a Christian. There is a mixture of flesh and spirit. They
run both in the same channel, and they run within the veins of the same
soul and spirit, as it were ; the question is not, therefore, whether there be
any fleshy sorrow, any carnal sorrow, grief, and mourning ; but whether
there be any holy and spiritual sorrow. How much there is of the one is
not the point, but whether there be any of the other. And if it be so, it is
spiritual sorrow, that thou canst shed some tears, vent some sighs and
groans to God in spiritual respects, for spiritual losses, for spiritual evils.
Here is matter of comfort, there is so much spiritual comfort, so much
spiritual joy belongs to thee.

Ohj. But how shall I know that my mourning is spiritual mourning,
when I cannot mourn for sin ? I have abundance of tears for losses, and
for crosses, and unkindnesses ; but I am dry, and barren, and tearless, when
it comes to matter of sin and offence, and trespass against God. Is this
well, that a man should have tears at command for outward losses and crosses,
and not shed a tear in prayer, and in repentance for sin ?

.4ns. No, my brethren, it is not well ; but how shall we do to amend
this ? Surely, even go to God and confess how it is ; complain of thyself,
and desire him to amend it ; and, if we condemn ourselves, God is ready to
receive us.

Obj. Ay, but the children of God are more plentiful in teats for sin than
for outward things.

Alls. Ay, in what sense ? Not in regard of the bulk, but in regard of
the worth,*^ in regard of the value of their tears. One tear spent for sin is
worth rivers of tears for outward matters. In the regard of the price and
excellency, it is more, because God accepts of a man's endeavour and desire
in this kind, and he looks what his desire, and intention, and endeavour is.
They are more also in regard of our esteem, that we would gladly weep
more for sin than for other matters. Otherwise, the children of God are
more plentiful many times in tears for the loss of children, as David was
for Absalom ; or for some cross that befalls them, as at Ziklag he wept so
much that he could weep no more, than for sin against God, and yet they
would weep most for that. They think that a matter of greatest sorrow,
and they desire to be more plentiful in tears for it, and then God accepts
it, according to that a man would do, and not according to that which he
cannot do, and which he hath not.

Obj. Further, it will be said. How shall I know my son'ow to be spiritual
sorrow ? I answer in a word :

Ans. 1. First, Look to the object, that it he universal. So in spiritual
things, he that is spiritually sorry he mourns for the want of goodness
wheresoever he seeth it, be it in himself or in other men, nay, be it in his
enemies. David saith, Ps. cxix. 63, sorrow seized on him, ' because his
adversaries kept not the law of God.' Spiritual mourning, it makes a man
sorry for painful evils that fall upon his brethren as well as himself; and
on himself as well as them. Do we mourn for other men's faults as well
as for our own ? Do w^e mourn that our enemies do overshoot themselves,
and that they disgrace themselves, as well, though not so much, as if our
friends had done it ? If our sorrow be universal, then it is spiritual.

Ans. 2. Secondly, Our sorrow will be spiritual and holy, if it be accom-
panied with jyrayer; for holy mourning makes way for prayer. Sometimes

292 SPIBITUAL MOURNING.

a man is so surprised and overwhelmed, as David saith, that he is not able
to speak a word, notwithstanding there may be a mental real prayer. His
eyes may be towards heaven, he may sigh, and groan, and lament, and
bemoan his own estate, that he cannot speak and pour forth himself in
prayer to God as he would do, and as he should do. Now, if our sorrow
be such sorrow, that it sends us to God, that it brings us on our knees,
that it makes us either speak or chatter, as Hezekiah did, it makes a man
mourn, groan, as the dove doth, as he saith of himself ; if it be such sor-
row as this, it is spiritual sorrow. You know that it is said of Jacob, Hos.
xii. 4, that he wrestled with the angel with tears, and sued to him with
supplication. Tears and supplication went together. He begged apace,
and cried apace ; he hanged on him, and would not let him go without a
blessing.

Ans. 3. Again, It is spiritual sorrow, when it is accompanied with thank-
fulness. A carnal man, when he is pinched and twinged, and knows not
which way to turn himself, he will be glad to cry, when he sees there is no
other refuge in the world, but either he must cry or sink. But a man that
is a spiritual mourner, he will be thankful as well as prayerful. This is a
comfortable kind of mourning. There is hope in it, there is sweetness and
comfort in it ; and that man that can so mourn, he blesseth God that he
can mourn, that God hath given him time and leisure, that he may set him-
self apart to provoke himself to mourn. He blesseth God that God hath
given him a word that can work upon him, that God hath given him friends
to deal faithfully, that God hath applied this word to his heart, that it hath
wounded him and made him bleed ; he is thankful for the mercy, and
thinks it a great promotion, when he can shed tears, when his heart
yields under the stroke of the word of God, and of the hand of God that is
upon him. Nay, he is thankful whatsoever it costs him. The child of God,
when he sees his heart is enlarged to weep over Christ for his sins, he cares
not how dear he pays for this sorrow, for this mourning, though he lose
some of his estate, some of his credit with men ; though he lose some of
his wealth, some of his comforts, some of his friends ; yet, notwithstanding,
if he can weep and mourn, he thinks he hath a good bargain, a good pur-
chase. Though God afflict him, though he pain him, though he cross him
and cast him down, yet if he see that his heart can weep for his sin, that
he can lament after the Lord, and can take to heart his corruptions, this
man can rejoice in this estate, he can bless God's name, that hath given
him an heart to mourn spiritually, though he pay dear for it in regard of
outward losses and outward smart.

Now, then, if you have such a mourning as this, that you do mourn for
spiritual things ; and you so mourn that your mourning fit you for prayer,
that it make way for praise and thanksgiving ; then take comfort in your
mourning, and know that it will end well. After night will come a day ;
after darkness there will come light ; after seed-time there shall be an har-
vest, you shall have a crop. The more you mourn, the more you shall
rejoice. Blessed are they that mourn for themselves and for others.
Blessed are they, they shall be comforted. They are comforted, and they
will be more comforted afterwards. So saith the mouth that cannot lie.
It is the speech of Christ himself. Thus we have done with the point, and
can no further proceed at this time.

YIOLENCE YIOTORIOUS.

VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS.

NOTE.

' Violence Victorious ' appeared originally in ' Tlie Beams of Divine Light ' (4to,
1639). The separate title-page will be found below.* For general title, sec Vol.
V. page 220. G.

*VIOLENCE
VICTORIOVS:

In two Sermons,

By the late Reverend and Learned
Divine Richard Sibs,

Doctor in Divinity, Master of Katherine Hall in
Cambridge, and sometimes Preacher at
Grayes-Inne.

Gen. 32. 2G.
/ will not let thee goe except thou blesse mee.

^ 1 CoE. 15. 57.

Thankes be vnto God which giveth us the victory through
lesus Christ our Lord.

LONDON,

Printed by G. M. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford,

1639.

VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS.

From the days of John Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent take it by force. — Mat. XI. 12.

John Baptist and our blessed Saviour gave mutual testimonies one of
another. He witnessed of Christ before he came, and our Saviour Christ
gives witness of him here. The occasion of this you have in the second
verse. John being in prison, sends two of his disciples to Christ, to know
whether he were the Christ or no ; not that John did doubt, but to confirm
his disciples. Christ returns a real and a verbal answer. * Tell John,'
saith he, ' what ye have seen and heard,' &c. ; and then he closeth up all,
' Blessed is he that is not offended with me.' Upon this occasion Christ
enters into a commendation of blessed St John Baptist, even unto a com-
parative commendation, * Amongst them that were born of women there had
not yet risen a greater than John the Baptist; ' not so much in eminency of
grace, though that may have a truth, as in regard of the dispensation of his
ministry, John living in more glorious times. For the excellency of the
church is from Christ. He doth ennoble and advance times, and places,
and persons. Bethlehem, a little city, yet not a little city in regard that
Christ was born there ; and saith Christ, ' Happy are the eyes that see
that which j'^oareyes see,' Luke x. 23. Everything is advanced by Christ.
So John Baptist, in regard of his office, being the immediate forerunner of
Christ, was greater than all that were before him ; yet he saith, * The
least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he ; ' not in grace, but in
prerogative, in regard of the revelation and manifestation of more things.
For John Baptist died before he saw the death, and resurrection, and ascen-
sion of Christ accomplished, before he was glorified. Therefore in regard
of these prei'ogatives, the least in the kingdom of heaven, that is, in the
church of the New Testament, is greater than he. It is a rule that the
least of the greater is greater than the greatest of the less. John was
greater than the greatest of them that were before him, but lesser than the
least of those that were after him.

Then Christ commends John from the efficacy of his ministry : * From
the days of John Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent take it by force.' So you see how the words depend upon
the former. For the points we are to consider in them.

First, Here you have the state of the church in the New Testament. It is

296 YIOLENCK VICTORIOUS.

a kingdom, and the kingdom of heaven ; together with the quaUty ol the
means whereby it comes to be a kingdom, the means of grace, the gospel.
The gospel and the people that are wrought on by the gospel in the New
Testament, they are both called the * kingdom of heaven.'

Then, secondly, here is set down ilie affection of those people that seek
this ki)if/dom at that time, and so forward to the end of the icorld. The dis-
position of the persons is, ' They are violent.'

The third is, the issue or success of this eagerness and violence. Though
the manner be violent, yet the success is good. ' The violent take it by
force.'

The fourth is, the date or time when it^hegins, and how long it continues.
It bears date from the preaching of Saint John Baptist to the end of the
world. * Until now ; ' that is, to the end of the world. As it was said,

* till now,' in the evangelist's time, so posterity may say, ' Until now,' from
the first coming of Christ till his second coming. While there is a gospel
preached, which is the ministry of the Spirit, the Spirit will be working ;
and there are such glorious things in the gospel, that there will be violence
ofiered. So while there is a people to be gathered, and a gospel to be
preached to gather them, and a Spirit that works by that gospel, there will
be violence in the church offered to the means of salvation.

Doct. 1. First, The state of the church, together ivith the means, the gospel
jyreached, it is called the kingdom of heaven.

Besides others, there are three main significations of these words, ' The
kingdom of heaven.'

First, The famous, leading, proper signification is the state and place
where God himself and his people are most glorious, ' the kingdom of
heaven.'' All the other significations end in that. But, secondly, because
all that shall come into that glorious kingdom, they must be kings here
first, in the state of the kingdom of grace, which consists ' in righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,' Gal. v. 22, in the graces and comforts
of the Spirit, therefore the state of grace comes to have the name too of

* the kingdom of heaven.' And thirdly. Because grace in this world cannot
be attained without an order, and means, and dispensations from God,
hereupon the dispensation of the means whereby we come to have grace is
also called ' the kingdom.' The unfolding the mysteries of salvation in
the gospel is called the kingdom of God. As Christ saith, ' The kingdom
of God shall be taken from you ; ' that is, the preaching of the gospel ;
therefore * the gospel' is called ' the gospel of the kingdom,' and ' the word
of the kingdom,' because by this word we come to have grace, and by grace,
glory. There is no glory without grace, and no grace without the word.
One makes way for another. The preaching of the gospel doth cause a church,
which is the kingdom of Christ, wherein he rules by the sceptre of his
word ; by which word Christ and all his riches, and glory, and prerogatives
are unfolded ; and thereby gi-ace is wrought, and grace leads to glory.
This connection and subordination is to be observed,

1. First, For the conviction of those who do not indeed belong to the king-
dom of heaven. Every man is ready to talk of the kingdom of heaven, and
the glory there ; ay, but there is a subordination of grace, and of the means
of grace. How standcst thou affected to the means of salvation, to the
' word of the kingdom,' the ' word of life,' the ' word of reconciliation' ? for
it hath the name from all the excellencies to which it brings us ; to shew
that as we value life, a kingdom, reconciliation, and all that is good, so we
must value this gospel, or else it is a presumptuous confidence. If the

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privileges of grace and glory belong to us, we must come to them by these
steps. Those that regard not the gospel and means of salvation, they have
nothing to do with grace nor glory. They are hereby convinced of arrogant
folly.

2. Again, It is a ground to comfort weak Christians that regard the means
of salvation, and yet fear tlieir falling away. Be of good comfort whosoever
thou art. God hath knit and linked these together ; all the power of earth
and hell cannot break one link of this chain. Conscionable* attending
upon the means, and grace, and glory, will go together. Therefore hold on,
attend upon the means of salvation, and wait with comfort. The gospel
of the kingdom will bring thee to grace ; and grace, though it be but a
little measure, will bring thee to glory. Where God hath begun a good
work he will finish it ; he will second one benefit with another ; diligent
attending on the means with grace, and grace with glory.

In Scripture, works have their denomination from that they aim at, as
the apostle saith, ' Ye have crucified the old man,' Eom. vi. 6, and ' ye
are crucified with Christ,' Gal. ii. 20, because ye are in doing it, and ye
shall do it perfectly. So we are saints, because we shall be so. We are
kings now, because we are in part so, and we shall be so fully hereafter.
So grace is called the kingdom of heaven, because it is the undoubted way
to the kingdom of heaven and glory. God would help our faith by the
very title ; for we are not elected to the beginnings only of glory, but to
the perfection, as it is excellently set down Eph. i. 6, ' We are elected to
glory by means and beginnings.' Therefore undoubtedly we may hope for
the accomplishment when we see the beginnings.

Quest. Why is the state of grace, and the means of grace, and glory itself,
called ' the kingdom of heaven ' ?

Ans. Because they are all of and from heaven. The one is in heaven
the kingdom of glory, and the other the kingdom of the word here ; and
truth and grace which are by it are from heaven. The truth we have and
grace from that truth come from heaven ; yea, and Christ, the author of all,
is from heaven, and they all lead to heaven.

Which should teach us with what minds to converse in the hearing and
reading of these things with heavenly aflections. And it shews likewise
why worldlings and base people are no more aftected with the things of the
gospel, because it is ' the kingdom of heaven.' If it were of the world, we
should have it sought with eagerness enough, though it were a less matter
than a kingdom ; but it is a ' kingdom of heaven' remote from flesh and
blood. There must be a new Spirit to work a new sight and a new taste,
to work a change in the heart of man, and then he shall know the things
of ' the kingdom of heaven.' He must come out of the world that will see
this kingdom, as in Rev. xviii. 4, ' Come out of Babylon.' A man must
come out of antichrist's kingdom to see the baseness of it. He cannot see
it in the midst of it. So we must come out of the world if we would see
the glorious kingdom of Christ. It is a heavenly kingdom. Therefore the
greatest potentates of the world must abase themselves. There is no great-
ness in the world can help them to this heavenly kingdom.

Quest. But why should the gospel and the state of the church in the
New Testament be called the kingdom of heaven, and receive the date now ?
was it not the kingdom of heaven before ?

A71S. I answer. It is the manner of the Scripture to give titles to things
from the glorious manifestation of them. Things are said to be when they
* That is, ' conscientious.' — G.

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VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS.

are gloriously manifested. The mystery of Christ is said to be revealed
now in the time of the gospel. It was known before to Adam and Abraham
and the rest. But now there was a more apparent glorious manifestation
of it. Therefore now the manifestation of Christ, and the good things by
him, they are called ' a kingdom.' Before it was kept enclosed in the pale
of the Jewish church, it was veiled under types, it was hid in promises
that were dark and obscure. But when Christ came, all was taken off and
Christ was unveiled. It is said in the gospel, ' The Holy Ghost was not
given yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified,' John vii. 39. The Holy
Ghost was given before, but not so fully and plentifully. So there was a
state of heaven before men were saved, before the coming of Christ ;
but it was not called ' the kingdom of heaven,' It was not a state of
liberty and freedom from the bondage of ceremonies, &c.

And there is reason that there should be violence offered to this state,
and means, and grace wrought by it. It is a kingdom. It is no great
wonder that a kingdom should suffer violence, especially such a kingdom
as ' the kingdom of heaven.' What is in a kingdom ?

There is, first of all, freedom from slaverij mid danger. A kingdom is an
independent state. There is none above it. He that is a king is free,
independent, and supreme.

Then again, a kingdom is a full state. There is abundance and plenty
of people and good things in a kingdom.

Again, In a kingdom there is glory and excellency — where is it to be had
else ? — all the glory, and sufficiency, and contentment that earth can afford.

Now in that the state of the church by reason of the glorious gospel is
called a kingdom.

First, It is a free state, as indeed the 'word doth make us free' from
former bondage. In particular, the gospel of Christ it frees us from Jewish
bondage, and from all kind of bondage spiritual. ' If the Son make you
free, ye are free indeed,' John viii. 36. A Christian is above all. He is
over sin, and Satan, and the law. He is free, and supreme, and indepen-
dent. All are under him. A Christian, as a Christian, he is under none
but Christ, under no creature. ' The spiritual man judgeth all things, yet
he himself is judged of no man,' 1 Cor. ii. 15. I speak not of civil
differences ; but as a Christian is a member of Christ, and a citizen of the
kingdom of heaven, he hath a kind of independent state. His conscience
is only subject to God and Christ. But all earthly things he commands,
they are under him.

And second. The state of a Christian is a fall state. God is his, Christ
is his, ' all things are his,' 1 Cor iii. 21, so much as shall serve to bring
him to heaven. That which is truly good is directly his, and indirectly all
other things are made his by Christ, who hath the authority, and power,
and strength of a king to command all things to work together for his good,
Rom. viii. 28. Death, and sin, and all that befalls him, are thus his. And
then he hath a spirit of contentment in the want of good, and of patience
in the suffering of ill, that he ' can do all things,' as St Paul saith, ' through
Christ that strengtheneth him,' Phil. iv. 13. What he wants in outward
things he can fetch supply from the promises of the gospel, he can fetch
supply from Christ, and from the state to come ; and what he wants in
other things he hath in grace, which is better.

Third, It is a state likewise of glory and excellency. But it is a spiritual
glory, and therefore it consists together with outward baseness and mean-
ness. It is a glorious state to be the * Son of God,' to be ' heirs of heaven,'

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299

heirs of all things in Christ ; by the Spirit of Christ in him he rules over
all. How glorious is the Spirit of God in a Christian in the time of
temptation and affliction, when he hath a Spirit ruling in him that is
stronger than the world and all oppositions whatsoever? 1 John iv. 4.
The state of a Christian is glorious even in this world in the beginnings of
it. What then is the glory that is to be revealed on the sons of God ' in
the day of revelation?' Rom. ii. 5. It cannot enter into our thoughts, it
is above our expression, nay, it is above our imagination and conceit. Thus
you see there is great cause why ' the kingdom of heaven should suffer
violence.' When crowns and kingdoms are laid open to people with hope
of getting them, especially such an one as ' the kingdom of heaven is,' it
is no wonder if there be ' violence' ofiered to get them.

The next thing is the affection of those that seek after this kingdom. It
is violent.

' The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.'

How doth the * kingdom of heaven,' the gospel and means of grace,
' suffer violence.'

1. First, Because when these good things ivere revealed by John Baptist,
and then by Christ, ami after by the disciples and apostles, many thronged into
the church, ichich is the gate of ' the kingdom of heaven.' They all pressed
to be of the church, to hear the icord of God. They hung, as it were, upon
the word of Christ, upon his mouth. They pressed so, that ' they trod
one upon another,' Luke xii. 1 ; and it is said they all came out to hear
John Baptist : ' Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about
Jordan,' Matt. iii. 5. So that in regard of the multitude there was violence.

2. And then in regard of their affections, their zeal to the good things of
the gospel was eager and earnest. To be citizens of a kingdom, to partake
of the means of salvation, to come to grace and so to glory, it made them
wondrous violent.

3. In regard likewise of the persons, ' the kingdom of heaven suffered
violence,' the persons being such as might be judged to have no right unto
it. Alas ! for poor wretched sinful men and women, that had been notorious
sinners, to come to receive a kingdom, to become kings, this was strange !
What had sinners to do with grace ? This doctrine was not heard of in
the law, that there should be hope for such wretched persons as these. If
such might be admitted, surely there must needs be great violence. _

Then again, they were poor and mean people, ' The poor receive the
gospel,' Luke vii. 22. For beggars to become kings ; poor men that were
advantaged by their outward abasement to come to spiritual poverty !

4. Again, they icere Gentiles, ' aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
and strangers from the covenant of promise,' Eph. ii. 12, heathen people.
' The Jews were the children of the kingdom,' Mat. viii. 12, the Gentiles
were foreigners and strangers. Now for these to come in, and ' the children
of the kingdom' to be shut out, it must needs suppose violence. Where
there is no apparent right, there is force. Now what right had the Gen-
tiles, that were little better than dogs ? Could they have anything to do
with the kingdom ? Ay, saith Christ, they take it by violence ; and the
Jews, and the proud scribes and Pharisees that seem to be the apparent
' children of the kingdom,' shall at length be shut out. ' They that were
first,' in outward prerogatives, ' shall be last ; and they that were last,' the
Gentiles, sinners, mean people, that take the advantage of their baseness
and sinfulness, to see their unworthiness, and to magnity the grace of God
in Christ, ' shall be first,' Mat. xx. 16. In these respects the kingdom of

800

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heaven is said to suffer violence.' People will to heaven, whatever come of
it ; when these good things are discovered they will have no nay. Hence,
we may learn this,

Doct. That it is the disposition of those that are the true memhers of the
chwch of God to be eager and violent.

Those that intend to enter into the kingdom, they must throng and
strive to enter ; and when they are in, they must keep the fort, and keep
it with violence.

There is indeed a violence of iniquity and injustice ; and so the people
of God, of all others, ought not to be a violent people. ' Do violence to
no man,' saith the Baptist to the soldiers, Luke iii. 14. Violence rather
debars out of the kingdom of heaven than is any qualification for it. But
this is another manner of violence which our Saviour here speaks of, neces-
sary for all that desire to enter into the kingdom of heaven ; and that for
these reasons :

I. First, Betwixt us and the blessed state we aim at there is much opposi-
tion ; and therefore there must be violence. The state of the church here,
the state of grace and the enjoyment of the means of grace, it is a state of
opposition. Good persons and good things they are opposed in the world.
Christ rules in this world, ' in the midst of his enemies.' He must have
enemies therefore to rule in the midst of ; he must be opposed ; and where
there is opposition between us and the good things that we must of neces-
sity have, we must break through the opposition, which cannot be done
without violence. Now the means and graces of salvation they are opposed
every way, within us and without us.

(1.) They are opposed from within us; and that is the worst opposition.
For Satan hath a party within us that holds correspondency with him, our
own traitorous flesh. In all the degrees of salvation there is violence. Hence,
in efi'ectual calling, when we are called out of the kingdom of Satan, he is
not willing to let us go ; he will keep us there still ; and when we come to
have our sins forgiven in justification, there is opposition ; proud flesh and
blood will not yield to the righteousness of the gospel ; it will not rest in
Christ ; it will seek somewhat in itself. In sanctification there is opposi-
tion between ' the flesh and the Spirit.' Every good work we do it is got-
ten out of the fire, as it were, it is gotten by violence. In every good
action, whether it be to get grace, or to give thanks to God, how many car-
nal reasonings are there ! If a man be to give to others, the flesh sug-
gests, I may want myself. If he be to reform abuses in others, he is ready
to think, others will have somewhat to say to me ; and I shall be offensive
to such and such men. And then the affection of earthly things chains us
to the things below, and self-love prompts a man to sleep in a whole skin.
We love our wealth, and peace, and favour with men. So that a man can-
not come to the state of grace without breaking through these ; and here-
upon comes the necessity of violence, from the opposition from within us.
We must offer violence to ourselves, to our own reason, to our own wills
and affections. ' You have not yet resisted unto blood,' saith the apostle,
Heb. xii. 4. We do not resist by killing others, but we ourselves resist to
death, when, rather than we will miss heaven and happiness, and rather
than we will not stand for the truth, we will suffer death.

(2.) Again, There is opposition /?-o?/i the world : on the right hand, by the
snares and delights of the world, to quench the delight in the good things
of the Spirit ; and on the left hand, by fears, and terrors, and scandals, to
scare us from doing what we ought to do.

VIOLENCE VICTOEIOUS. 301

(3.) And then there is opposition from Satan, in every good action. He
besets us in prayer with distracted thoughts ; and in every duty, for he
knows they tend to the ruin of him and of his kingdom. There is no good
action but it is opposed from within us and without us. The means of
salvation, and the attending on them, they are not without slander and dis-
grace in the world. God will have this violence therefore, because there
is opposition to the means, to the attendance on them, to gi'ace, to every
good action, to everything that is spiritually good.

Nay, sometimes God himself becomes a personated enemy;* in spiritual
desertions he seems to forsake and leave us ; and not only to forsake us,
but to be an enemy, ' to write bitter things against us,' Job xiii. 26 ; and
that is a heavy temptation.

II. Again, God will have this violence and striving, as a character of dif-
ference, to shew ivho are bastard professors and who are not ; who will go to
the price of Christianity, and who will not. If men will go to heaven they
must be violent, they must be at the cost and charges, sometimes to venture
life itself, and whatsoever is dear and precious in the world. A man must
be so violent, that he must go through all, even death itself, though it be
a bloody death, to Christ. This discards all lukewarm, carnal professors,
who shake off this violence. In all estates of the church, it is almost
equally difficult to be a sound Christian ; for God requires this violence
even in the most peaceable times. Now, the truth and religion are counte-
nanced by the laws, yet the power of it is by many much opposed. There-
fore he now that in spite of reproach, in spite of slander, will bear the
scorns cast upon the gospel, that will ' go with Christ without the gate,
bearing his reproach,' Heb. xiii. 18, such a man may be said to be thus
violent. It is an easy thing to have so much Christianity as will stand
with our commodity or with pleasure, &c. ; but to have so much as will
bring us to heaven, I say, it is equally hard in all times of the church, it
requires violence to carry us through these lesser oppositions.

III. Again, God will have us get these things with violence, that ive may
set a greater price on them ivhen ive have them. When we have things that
are gotten by violence, that are gotten hardly. Oh we value them much !
Heaven is heaven then. Things that are hardly gotten and hardly kept
are highly prized.

IV. Again, The excellency of the thing enforceth violence. It is fit that
excellent things should have answerable affections. Now, it being a king-
dom, and the kingdom of heaven, what affection is answerable but a violent,
strong affection ?

V. Again, Together with the excellency, the necessity requires it ; for the
kingdom of heaven it is a place of refuge as well as a kingdom to enrich
us. There were cities of refuge among the Jews. When a man was fol-
lowed by the avenger of blood, he would run as fast as he could to the city
of refuge, and there he was safe. So when a guilty conscience pursues us,
when there is a noise of fear in the heart, when God's judgments awaken
us and hell is open, when a man apprehends his estate and is convinced
what a one he is and what he deserves, of necessity he will fly to the city
of refuge ; and where is that but in the ' kingdom of heaven,' in the
church ? Happy is he that can but get in at the gate of this kingdom,
there is no doubt of his going in further. But there must be a striving ' to
enter in at the gate,' Luke xiii. 24. And then there he shall be hid in
his sanctuary ; as the pursued doves get into their nests, and the conies

* That is, one who performs the part of an enemy. — Ed.

302 VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS.

hide them in the rock, when they get that over their heads then they
are safe. So a Christian, ^Yhen he is pursued with conscience and with
the temptations of Satan, he flies to his sanctuary. Do you wonder that
a guilty man shoukl flee to his sanctuary, and the pursued creatures to
their hold and refuge ? In this respect ' the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence.'

Herein it is compared to some great, rich city, that hath some great
treasure and riches in it ; and it must he besieged and beleagured a long
time, and those that can enter into it they are made for ever. Or it is
like the entrance or gate of a city where there is striving and thronging,
and where besides enemies are, that if men strive not they are cut, and
mangled, and killed. So it is in the state of this kingdom. When a
man's eyes be opened, he sees the devil and hell behind him, and either
he must enter or be damned ; and being entered, it makes him rich and
advanceth him for ever. So he is strongly moved to offer violence on both
sides. If he look behind him there is the kingdom of Satan, darkness and
misery and damnation ; for as Pharaoh pursued the Israelites when they
were gone out of his kingdom, so the devil pursues a man when he is
broken out of his dominion : and then before him there is the kingdom of
happiness and glory. The fear of that that follows them, and the hope of
that that is set before them, both make them strive to enter into the gate
of that city.

Use. What should this teach us ?

First, Let it he a rule of trial to know and judffe of our estate, u'hetlier we
he entered into this gate of heaven or no. Our lives are very short, very
uncertain ; let us consider if we be in the way to heaven. What striving,
what struggling, what violence have w^e ever offered ? There are a com-
pany that regard not the means of salvation at all, either in private or
public. Some come to the word and hear, but they do not hear it as the
word of God, to be ruled by it, but as a discourse to dehght themselves
for the time ; to have matter to speak of and to censure, not with a spirit
of obedience to be guided by it as the sceptre of the kingdom. What
' violence' is this, now and then to hear a sermon, now and then to read a
chapter, now and then to utter a yawning prayer between sleeping and
waking, perhaps when thou knowest not what thyself sayest ? How then
wouldst thou have God to regard it ? What violence is in the lives of
most Christians ? what strength to enforce good actions ? How do they
improve the means of salvation? Many means are wholly neglected.
Some perhaps they use, that may stand with their convenience, now and
then ; whereas there must be an universal care of all the means. There
cannot one be neglected without the loss of grace, and there must be
attendance on them with violence. There is none of the means can profit
us without rousing and stirring up our spirits. We cannot hear nor pray
without drawing up and raising up our souls. The flesh will stop the com-
fortable performance of any action else, and Satan will kill them in the very
birth if he can.

To search a little deeper, do hut compare your courses toward these good
things of heaven ivith your courses toirards the icorld. If there be hope of
preferment, the doors of great men are sure to suffer violence with favourites.
The courts of justice suffer violence to have our right in earthly things.
The stages and such places are thronged, and suffer violence. If a man
could but overlook the courses of men abroad in the city, he should see
one violent for his pleasures, running to the house of the harlot ' as a fool

VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS. 303

to tlie stocks,' Prov. vii. 22 ; another to the exchange, to increase his
estate ; another to the place of justice, to detract his neighbour, or to get
his own right, perhaps neglecting his title to heaven in the mean time ; another
to the court, to get favour to rise to some place of preferment. These
places sutler violence. But what violence doth the poor gospel endure ?
Alas ! it is slighted ; and men will regard that when they can spare time,
&c. It is not regarded according to the worth and value of it. If ever
we look to have good by the gospel, our dispositions must be violent, in
some proportion answerable to the excellency of it.

Alas ! we may justly turn the complaint on ourselves, that whilst we
spend our strength in violence about the base and mean things of this life,
the kingdom of heaven it otfereth violence to us, and yet we will none of
it. How doth God beseech us in the ministry ! ' We beseech you to be
reconciled,' 2 Cor. v. 20 ; and ' Why will ye die, house of Israel?' Ezek.
xviii. 31. As if the gospel and grace were commodities that God were
weary of, he comes and puts them upon us whether we will or no, and yet
we refuse them. We are so far from offering violence to the gospel and
to grace, that God offers violence to us, as if we should do him a favour to
receive the gospel, and to do good to our own souls ; and yet the vile,
proud, base heart of man will not regard and receive these heavenly things.
How will it justify God's sentence at the day of judgment, when he shall
allege there was a discovery of such things unto you, and instead of violence
in seeking them, you slighted and neglected them? Nay, there is a worse
sort of men than these, those that oppose the ' kingdom of heaven' in the
means of it, in the persons of it ; what kind of men are these, think you ?
Again, We see here that there is a blessed violence that may stand with
judgment. A man cannot be violent and wise in the things of this world,
because the things are mean ; and eagerness is above the proportion of
them. A man cannot be violent after honour or riches, and be as he should
be. These are things that he must leave behind him, and they are worse
than himself. Much less after filthy pleasures can a man be violent and
wise ; a man ' must become a fool in this respect,' as the Scripture saith,
1 Cor. iii. 18. But in respect of heavenly things, a man may be violent
and wise ; for there is such a degree of excellency in the things that no violence
can be too much. Men talk of being too strict and too holy. Can there
be too much of that which we can never have enough of in this world ? I
speak it the rather to confound the base judgment that the world hath of a
holy disposition, which is carried with a sweet, eager violence to these
things. They are thought to be frantic, to be out of their wits, as they
thought St Paul was ; but he answers, ' If we be out of our wits, beside
ourselves, it is to God,' 2 Cor. v. 13. Christ himself was sometimes laid
hands on, as if he had been out of himself, John x. 20 ; and as Festus told
blessed St Paul, ' that much learning had made him mad,' Acts xxvi. 24,
when he saw him eager in the cause of Christ, so man}', when they see
a man earnest in the matters of God, they think surely these men have lost
their discretion. No ; it is the highest discretion in the world to be eager
and violent for things that are invaluable ; and if men be not eager for
these, they are fools. They know not how to prize things. The most
judicious men here are most violent. So that it be violence that hath
.eyes in its head, violence guided with judgment, from the knowledge of
the excellency of the good things of the gospel, I speak of such a violence
as that.

Away, then, with base reproaches ! Let us not be affrighted with the ill

304 VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS.

reports of idle brains and rotten hearts of people, that know not the things
that belong to the ' kingdom of heaven.' Alas ! they know not what they
say ; they are to be pitied, and not censured. Is there anything that a
man should be earnest for if not for these things ? Were our souls made
to pursue things that are earthly and base, worse than ourselves ? Were
our wits made only to plod in our temporal, and to neglect our heavenly,
caUing? If anything may challenge the best of our endeavours, the
marrow of our labours, the utmost of our spirits and wits, certainly it is
these : grace and glory, that will stand by us when all things will fail us.
Therefore let not your own hearts besot you, nor the vain speeches of others
affright you. It will be acknowledged by every one ere long that there is
nothing worth a man's eagerness but these things. The worldling is violent
and eager ; he troubleth himself and his house about ' a vain shadow,'
Eccles. vi. 12, for pleasures and profit, &c. ; and what comes of all his
violence ? He is turned naked into his grave, and thence into hell ; and
there is an end of all the violence about all other things besides these.

We see then the disposition of true professors, they are violent in respect
of heavenly things. Those therefore that are not earnest in the cause of religion,
when the state of things requires it, they have no religion in them, they are not
in the state of grace. We must be earnest, first of all, against our own sins.
Violence must begin there, to subdue all to the Spirit of Christ, to suffer
nothing else to rule there ; and after that, violence to maintain the cause
of Christ. ' To contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the
saints,' Jude 3 ; to contend with both hands ; not to suffer it to be wrested
from us or to be betrayed ; and if it be opposed, to vindicate it. We must
be violent both to propagate the truth of Grod, and, in case of opposition,
to vindicate it. ' He that is not with me,' saith Christ, ' is against me,'
Mat. xii. 30. If a man be not with Christ, he is against him. It may
seem a strange speech, but Christ cannot abide lukewarm neuters. He
cannot abide nullifidians.-^- He cannot endure cold persons. His stomach
cannot brook them. ' He will cast them up,' as he saith Rev. iii. 15, 16,
' I would thou wert hot or cold.' A man had better be nothing in religion
than be lukewarm. The reason is, if a man will have good by any religion,
he must be in earnest in it : ' If Baal be God, stand for him, if you would
have good by him: if the Lord be God, stand for him,' 1 Kings xviii, 21.
Be earnest in his cause. If popery be good, then stand for that, if you
hope for good by it; and if our religion be good, then stand for that, if you
hope for good by it. There is no good received by religion if we be not
earnest for it. Religion is not a matter to be dallied in.

Therefore they are hitter, sour, profane, scoffing atheists, that trifle with
religion, as if it were no great matter what it be. They will be earnest in
all things else ; earnest to scrape riches, to satisfy their base lusts. But for
religion, it is no matter what it be ; it is a thing not worthy the seeking
after ; the old religion or the new, or both or none. These are persons to
be taken heed of, breeding a temper opposite to religion more than any
other. Christ can least brook f them. There is great reason for it.
Who can brook any favour to be neglected and slighted ? Especially for
these excellent things to be undervalued and slighted, it cannot be that
God can endure it. There will be a faction in the world while the world
stands — Christ and Antichrist, good and evil, light and darkness. But a
man cannot be of both ; he must shew himself of one side or other in case
of opposition. Therefore the temper of the true professor is to be earnest

* That is, persons of no faith. — Ed. t That is, ' bear,' ' endure,' ' suffer.'— G.

VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS. 305

in case of opposition of religion, and in case of opportunity to advance liis
religion. In civil conversation, and dealing with men that are subject to
infirmities, he must be gentle and meek : ' the Spirit of God descended in
the shape of a dove ' upon Christ, as well as in ' fiery tongues ' upon the
apostles, Mat. iii. 16, Acts ii. 3. But in the cause of Christ, in the cause
of religion, he must be fiery and fervent. No man more mild in his own
cause than Moses — he was a meek man, Exod. xxxii. 19 — but when occa-
sion served, when God was ofiended, down he throws the tables of stone.
He forgat himself, though he were the meekest man in the world otherwise in
his own matters. So, I say, the Spirit is both meek and gentle _ap a dove,
and earnest, and zealous, and hot as fire. In Acts ii. 2, the Spirit of God
comes down as a * mighty wind.' The wind is a powerful thing, if it be in a
man's body. There is no torment like to windy sickness, as their complaints
witness well enough that feel them. And if a little wind be enclosed in the
earth, it shakes the whole vast body of the earth. The Spirit is like wind :
it makes men bold ; it fills them with a great deal of eagerness in the cause
of God. Again, the Spirit appeared to the apostles in the likeness of fire.
It inflamed their zeal, and made them fervent, that were cold before ; as we
see in Peter, the voice of a damsel terrified and affrighted him. Mat. xxvi. 69,
70 ; but when the Spirit came upon him, it so fired him that he accounted it
his glory, Acts v. 41, ' to suffer anything for the cause of Christ.' Therefore,
those that hope for anything by religion, let them labour to be for that re-
ligion in good earnest. They shall find God in good earnest with them also.
Again, Hence we see that religion takes not away the earnestness of the
affections. It doth direct them to better things ; it changeth them in
regard of the object. It takes not away anything in us, but turns the
stream another way. Violence requires the height and strength of the
affections. Keligion taketh them not away, hut turns them that way that
they should go. If a stream run violently one way, if it be derived* by
skill and cunning another way, it will run as fast that way when it is turned
as it did before. So it is with the heart of man. Eeligion takes nothing
away that is good, but lifts it up ; it elevateth and advanceth it to better
objects. There are riches, and honours, and pleasures when a man is in
Christ, but they are in a higher kind. Therefore they draw affections, and
greater affections than other things. But these affections are purified, they
run in a better, in a clearer channel. Whereas before they ran amain to
earthly, dirty things below, the same affections, of love, of desire, and zeal,
do remain still. He that was violent before is as violent still, only the
stream is turned. For example, take St Paul for an instance. He was as
earnest when he was a Christian as before. He was never more eager after
the shedding of the blood of Christians, and breathing out slaughter against
them, as he was afterwards in breathing after the salvation of God's people
and a desire to enlarge the gospel. Zaccheus was never so covetous of
the world before, as he was covetous of heaven when he became a Christian.
I say religion takes not away anything, only it turns the stream. But it
is a miracle for the stream to be turned. It was God that turned Jordan.
So it is a greater work than man can do to turn the streams of man's
affections, that run amain to earthly things, to make them run upward.
It is only God's work. This is the excellency of religion. It ennobles our
nature. That which is natural it makes it heavenly and spiritual ; that a
man shall be as earnest for God and good things as ever he was before
after the things of this life. So much for that point.
* That is, = ' conveyed.' — G.

VOL. VI. 'U

306 VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS.

The third thing is the success.

' The violent take it by force.'

The earnestness of affection and violence, it is successful. * They take 11.'
The good things of God, they are here compared to a fort, or to a well- I
fenced and well-armed city, strengthened with bulwarks and munition, that '
is a long time besieged, and at length is taken ; for this clause, * The
violent take it by force,' it doth as well shew the issue of the violent ones
striving for the kingdom of heaven, to wit, that they do at length take it,
as the manner how it is taken, namely, by force,

Doct. The violent, and only the violent, and all the violent, do at length
certainly obtain what they strive for, the kingdom of heaven.

Why?

1. Because it is promised to the violent. ' Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you,' Mat. vii. 7. ' Be zealous, and repent' (that is the means to cure
all former transgressions, 'repent'), * and be zealous, and do the former
works,' and ' To him that overcometh,' Eev. iii. 19, 21 (that is, he that is
earnest, that will never leave off till he hath overcome), ' to him will I
grant to sit with me on the throne ; and to him that overcometh will I give
to eat of the tree of life,' Rev. ii. 7. All the promises are to him that
overcomes, to him that is zealous and earnest.

2. Then again. The Spirit ivhereby a man is earnest is a victorious Spirit.
As Christians have the word and promise to build on, that leads them on,
and encourageth them, so they are led by a mighty Spirit, that hath the
force of wind and fire, that beats down all before it, that breaks through
all oppositions and difficulties. Being led with a divine Spirit, what earthly
thing can oppose that which is divine ? It brings under and subdues all.
Therefore ' the violent take it,' the Spirit of God seizing upon and pos-
sessing the heart, and carrying it with strength after these things.

3. And then only the violent take it, because God hath set it at this rate.
* He that heareth and doth,' * he that perseveres to the end,' ' he that sells
all for the pearl,' for the treasure in the field ; there must be nothing
retained ; all must be parted with ; we must be at any cost and charge and
peril, and all little enough. It is offered to us upon these terms, of parting
with all, of enduring anything, of breaking through all difficulties. Only
such, and all such, shall obtain it by force.

4. And again, Only the violent, because only they can prize it when they
have it. They only can prize grace and heaven. They know how they
come by it. It cost them their pleasures and profits, it cost them labour,
and danger, and loss of favour with men ; and this pains, and cost, and
loss, it endears the state of grace and glory to them ; for God will never
bring any man to heaven till he have raised his affections to that pitch, to
value grace and glory above all things in the world. Therefore only those
shall take it by violence ; for only those shew that they set a right price on
the best things. They weigh them ' in the balance of the sanctuary,'
Dan. V. 27. They value things as God would have them valued. -*

Obj. But is not the kingdom of heaven and grace free ? Therefore what
needs violence to a thing that is free, and freely offered ?

Ans. I answer. Because it is free, therefore it is violently taken. For,
alas ! if it were offered to us upon condition of our exact performing of the
law, it might damp the spirits of men, as indeed usually such, if they be
not better informed, they end their days in despair. But being freely
offered, ' the pubHcans and harlots,' saith Christ, ' go into the kingdom of
God before the proud Pharisees,' Mat. xxi. 31. Because it is free, it is

VIOLENCE VICTOKIOUS. 307

free to sinners that feel the burden of their sins. ' Come unto me, all ye
that are weary and heavy laden,' &c., Mat. xi. 28. ' Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after righteousness : they shall be satisfied,' Mat. v. 3-6.
Thereupon he that hath a guilty conscience, he makes haste, and offers
violence, when he hears of free pardon. What makes the condition of
the devils so desperate ? There is no hope of free pardon to thena.
What makes men so eagerly to embrace the gospel, notwithstanding their
sins ? Because it is freely offered. Thereupon it was that the Gentiles
were so glad of it, that had been sinners and under Satan's kingdom
before ; and that makes miserable persons, that are humbled with afflic-
tions and abasement in the world, glad of it— it being so great a thing, the
kingdom of heaven, the favour of God, and freedom from misery, and so
freely offered. It is so far from hindering violence because it is free, that
therefore the humble afflicted souls that desire grace are the more eager
after it. The proud Pharisees thought the kingdom of heaven belonged
only to them ; and therefore they despised Christ, and despised the gospel,
because it was propounded to sinners, and to such mean persons that they
thought were viler than themselves. But now when the meaner sort of
people, and others that were abased with crosses in the world, saw what a
kind of gospel it was, what great matters were offered, and that it was
offered freely, they justified wisdom. Mat. xi. 19, and the counsel of God
which others despised, and pressed for it with violence, Luke vii. 29, 30.

It is little comfort to hear of the excellency and necessity of these hea-
venly things, if there were not hope of them. Hope stirs up diligence and
endeavour in the things of this world. What makes men adventure to the
Indies, east and west ? They hope for a voyage that shall enrich them all
their life. Hope in doubtful things stirs up industry. What makes the
poor husbandman diligent to plough and to sow ? The hope that he shall
have a harvest ; yet this is under a providence that may guide it another
way. But spiritual things are more certain. Therefore hope in spiritual
things must needs stir up endeavour. We need not call them into question.
And as it stirs up to diligence, so it stirs up in the use of the means ; not
to give over till we see our hopes accompUshed. Then, in the third place,
hope of success, that we shall not lose our labour, it enables and strength-
eneth us to bear the tediousness of the time and the incumbrance of afflic-
tions, and whatsoever is between us and the thing we expect. Though we
have not that comfort from God that we would have, yet it makes us wait
upon God.

Therefore when he saith, ' the violent take it by force,' it is to encourage
us. The violent, eager, strong endeavours of a Christian in the ways of
God, in the means of salvation, they are no successless endeavoui'S.

He labours for that he knows he shall have ; his violence is not in vain.
He that is violent in good things hath a promise. He that wrestleth with
God shall overcome, and he that overcometh shall have a crown. Here is
a promise to build on. Therefore here is encouragement to be earnest and
violent, ' he shall overcome,' he shall enter the castle at the last, if he con-
tinue striving, and give not over. Hence there is a difference to be observed
between the endeavours of a Christian and of three sorts of other men.

(1.) First of all, If those only that offer violence to the kingdom of
heaven, that set on it with encouragement, shall get it, and that by force,
u-hat a great difference then is between them and those that in a contrary way
offer violence to the kingdom of heaven ; that is, those that wrong Christ in

308 VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS.

his members, and hinder the means of salvation. "VMiat promise have they
to speed ? Surely the}" have no promise nor hope at all. Only their
malice carries them amain in spite. Because the gospel reveals their hol-
lowness and hypocrisy to all men, and forceth upon them a necessity to be
other men than they list to be for the present, therefore they are eager in
hating the gospel. There are threatenings enough against such as are
violent against the gospel. They are violent in vain, for they ' kick against
the pricks,' Acts ix. 5 ; they run themselves against a stone wall, and they
shall dash themselves against it. Those that have ill will to Sion shall
perish. There is one * sits in heaven that laughs ' all their attempts * to
scorn,' Ps. ii. 4. A Christian hath comfort in his endeavours. There is
hope of good success, though there be inward and outward opposition. He
shall prevail. Those that are enemies have nothing but discouragement.
They shall be ' as grass on the house-top,' Ps. cxxix. 6, &c., that no man
blesseth, but is cursed of every one. No man bestows a good word on
them. It is a fruitless endeavour. They are under a curse.

(2.) Again, It shews us how to jndf/e of the courses of other men, that are
violent in other courses, about the ivorld. A Christian he takes his kingdom
at the last and enjoys it for ever ; but those that are violent for the world,
after pleasures, after baser things than themselves, alas ! when they have
it, they have but a shadow, and they become shadows in embracing it.
Vanity embraceth vanity, and how soon are they stripped of all ! If a man
by violence scrape a great estate, he must leave it shortly. Here he found
it, and here he must leave it, in spite of his heart, ere long ; and ' all is but
vanity ' in the censure of him that knew all things the best of any man,
even Solomon, that had gone through the variety of all things. And oft-
times they miss of that they labour for ; ' they do not roast that they get
in hunting,' Prov. xii. 27. They hunt after preferment and after riches,
but ofttimes they do not enjoy them ; and if they do, they get the curse of
God with them, and ere long they are stripped of all. But here is that
that may strengthen our endeavours. ' The kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent take it.' It is not an endeavour that is lost.

(3.) Then again. This shews that the state of true Christians is different
f'om the state of 2)ersons that are carried to good tilings, hut not violently,
* The violent take it.' He surpriseth the city at the last, he lays his siege,
and will not remove till death. He will not give over till he have it. He
will have it, or he will die in the business, and so at last he obtains his
desire. The sluggish careless man he goes a little way. As Agrippa said
to Paul, ' he was almost persuaded to be a Christian,' Acts xxvi. 28, so it
is with such men. In some things they will be Christians, but there they
are at a stand. They will go no farther. ' The sluggard desireth and
wisheth, but his soul hath nothing,' Prov. xiii. 4. A sluggish, cold, lazy
Christian he loseth all his pains. If a man be to go ten miles, and go but
nine, and there sit down, he shall never come to his journey's end. If a
man will give but seven or eight shillings for that which is worth ten, he shall
go without it. Grace and glory are set at this price. There is required
such strength of labour and endeavour and violence. Therefore without
this, a man shall never attain it, unless he stretch himself to such a pitch.
' He shall never come to the end of his faith, to the salvation of his soul, to
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,' 1 Pet. i. 9. * The sluggard
wisheth and gets nothing.' The reason is, because he is a sluggard ; be-
cause he will not strive ; but the striver gets the fort, and hath all in it, and
is a man made for ever.

VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS. 309

* The sluggard tliinks himself wiser than many men 'that can give a
reason,' Ps. xxvi. 16. The sluggish discreet* Christian, 1 warrant you, he
hath reasons for what he doth ! It is not good to be too earnest ! It will
incur the disflxvour of such a man or such a man ! I shall be accounted so
and so for my pains ! But a wise man he seeth the excellency of the things,
and he knows that his courses and his conscience will justify him at the last,
and therefore he goes on, whatever comes of it.

God is not so weary of these precious things, these precious jewels of
grace and glory, as to force them upon us. Is ' the kingdom of heaven'
such a slight thing, that it should be obtruded to us whether we will or no ?
Shall we think to have it when our hearts tell us we esteem other things
better ? No. There are none ever come to heaven but their hearts are
wrought to such an admiration of grace and glory, that they undervalue
all things to it. Therefore there is no hope for any to obtain it, but he
that takes it by violence. We see Moses esteemed the basest thing in the
church better than the greatest excellencies in the world, that men are so
violent after. He esteemed the very afflictions of God's people better than
the treasures and pleasures of sin for a season, nay, than the pleasures of
a court, Heb. xi. 25. When men shall esteem the base things of the world
above all the treasures of heaven, above the state of Christianity, they have
no hope of coming there. They may pretend God is merciful, and Christ
died, &c. Ay, but whosoever he brings to salvation, he works such a sense
of misery in them, and such an apprehension of grace, and of the means of
grace, that there is an undervaluing of all other things. God will not bring
them to heaven that shall not glorify him when they come there ; and how
shall they glorify him here or there when they value the world and these
base things that they must leave behind them more than the things of
heaven? This is the reason that few are saved, because they content
themselves with easy, dull, and drowsy performances, and never consider
with what proportion they are carried to things. When they had rather
lose the advantage of that which will bring everlasting good to their souls,
than lose the petty commodities of this world, and yet think themselves
good Christians, what a delusion is this ! It is the violent only that are
successful, ' they take it by force.'

Obj. Ay, but what if the opposition grow more and more ?

Ans. Then the grace of God and courage will grow and increase more
and more. As Luther said well, ' The more violent the adversaries were,
the more free and bold was he' (a). So the more the enemies rage, the
more the Spirit of grace grows in God's people. It increaseth by opposi-
tion. As Noah's Ai'k, the higher the waters were, the nearer still_ it was
carried to heaven. So we are nearer to God, and nearer to the ' kingdom
of heaven,' the more opposition swells and rages. True courage grows
with opposition. As the palm-tree riseth up against the burden that presseth
it down, so the divine Spirit being a heavenly thing, and all opposition
below of the devil and devilish-minded men being but earthly, what are
they to the divine Spirit which sets us on and encourageth us ? They
cannot quell it, but the Spirit grows more and more in opposition. The
apostles they ran all from Christ when he was to be crucified. They had
but a little measure of the Spirit, but when the Holy Ghost was shed more
plentifully on them, they began to stand courageously for the cause of
Christ. When there was more opposition the Spirit grew more and more,
till they sealed the truth with their blood. Therefore though opposition
* That is, ' ot'erprudent, cautious.' — G.

510

VIOLENCE VICTOEIOUS.

of enemies and their fury and rage grow, let us know whoso cause we
manage, and with what assurance of success. The violent at length ' shall
take it by force.' Let us meditate upon this, that success is tied to violence.
Therefore when you pray to God, if he seem to deny your request, offer
violence, wrestle with him, let him not go without a blessing. When he
seems to be an enemy, as sometimes he doth to try our strength, we must
use an holy violence. When we are dull, and not fit to pray, nor fit for
holy things, let us stir up the Spirit of God in us, and labour to get out
of that estate ; let us use violence, and violence will overcome at the last.
A man that hath the Spirit of God gets the victory of whatsoever opposeth
him. If there be snares offered from the world, he withstands them ;.if
Satan come with his temptations, he resists him. He hath a promise for
it : ' Resist the devil, and he will flee,' James iv. 7. Let us hold out and
we shall get the victory, and overcome even God himself. How much
more all other things ! Therefore when either opposition without, or
indisposition within, sets upon us in the course of religion and piety, let us
think here, now is time and place for violence. I know, if I set myself
about it, I shall have the victory and the crown. A Christian is alway in
a hopeful state and condition, he hath somewhat to encourage him, he hath
arguments to prevail over the state of opposition ; he knows he shall win
all at last if he go on, and that makes him courageous in what estate soever
he is. Let us not be discouraged to hear of opposition. And let us be
encouraged when we hear of good things, when we hear that the kingdom
of heaven and grace is offered in the preaching of the gospel. ' Let us
attend upon the posts of Wisdom's doors,' Prov. viii. 3, 4, and not give over
till ' we come to peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost,' Rom.
xiy. 17. If we hear of comfort in the word of God against distress of con-
science, let us never give over till we find it. If we hear that God is a
God ' hearing prayer,' let us never leave knocking at heaven-gate, never
leave wrestling, till our prayers be heard. When we hear what ill is to be
avoided, and what good is offered, let us not cease till we avoid the one and
obtain the other, ' The violent take it by force.'

The last point is the date of time from whence this kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence.

' From the days of John Baptist until now.'

Quest. Was there not a kingdom of heaven that suffered violence before
John Baptist's time? Did the kingdom of God begin then? Was
Christ a king, and was heaven opened only then ?

Ans. I answer, No. But now the things of God were more gloriously dis-
covered. Therefore, John i. 51, * henceforth you shall see heaven opened.'
The kingdom of heaven was opened now by the preaching of the gospel
more gloriously than before. Therefore the state of the gospel is called the
' kingdom of heaven,' partly in regard of the times before, and partly in
regard of the times after.

The law was full of servile bondage to ceremonies. It was a heavy dark
state. They were laden with a multitude of ceremonies, which were but
cold things to the spirit of a man that desires peace. Though they were
ceremonies of God's appointing, yet they were but outward empty things
in comparison : ' weak and beggarly elements,' as the apostle saith. Gal.
iv. 9. They were costly and painful and cold things, that had not the
efficacy of spirit in them.

And secondly. Then it was entailed to the Jeivs only. Now, since Christ's

VIOLENCE VICTORIOUS. 811

time, it is enlarged ; and being more large and free, this blessed estate is
called ' a kingdom.' John Baptist now opening Christ clearly, and a better
state than the church had yet enjoyed, when people saw an end of the cere-
monies, and the beginning of the glorious liberty in Christ, this made them
violently set on them.

Again, John Baptist made way for Christ, levelling the souls of men by his
powerful preaching and his holy life. He taught them in what need they
stood of Christ. He was the messenger sent before Christ for that end.
He was as the morning star to the sun. He was powerful in his preaching,
and holy in his life. He told every man his own. He told the Pharisees
that they were a ' generation of vipers.' He shewed men their state by
nature, and told them of a better state, that ' the kingdom of heaven was
at hand,' Mat. iii. 2. And although he wrought no miracles, yet himself
was a miracle. To teach such holy doctrine, and to live an austere holy
life in those evil days, it was no less than a miracle. Therefore this
violence to the kingdom of heaven, it hath the date from John Baptist's
time ; from his preaching, not from his birth. He being so excellent a
preacher, no wonder there should be violence.

This shews the reason why the gospel in later times was embraced so
greedily when Luther began to preach. Alas, people had been in a worse
condition than Jewish in respect of ceremonies ; and otherwise foolish idle
men they will set God to school, they will have some fooleries alway that
they will make as much of as of the worship of God ; and so it had been
in the times before Luther. In Saint Austin's time he was pestered with
many vain ceremonies ; and, good man, he yielded to the stream and custom
in many things, though he could hardly endure the slavery of those things.
Now when the times grew better, it is no wonder the world embraced the
gospel with violence, as in Luther's time, when there was a freedom pro-
claimed from those beggarly rudiments and traditions. Antichrist had
hampered the consciences of men with an intolerable mass of foolish,
groundless ceremonies, making them equal with the word of God, as we see
in the Council of Trent, (h) and this vexed the consciences of people like
scorpions, as it is Eev. ix. 9. They oppressed the people with a multi-
tude of weights and burdens, which when people could not assent unto, it
stung their consciences. No wonder then if people thronged after Luther
when he opened the doctrine of free justification by faith, that the con-
sciences of men were not to be hampered with these things. He taught
that God's people were only to have a few ceremonies for present order ; but
for the rest, to trouble men's consciences, and to make them of equal value
with the word of God, he shewed it was an abominable doctrine, and wrote
against it learnedly and sweetly. And therefore it is no marvel though the
truths he taught were soon and cheerfully by multitudes embraced.

And the reason why now the gospel begins to be so little embraced and
esteemed, is because, by reason of the long continuance of it, we are weary
of this heavenly manna. As the people in Saint John Baptist's time, as
eager as they were after John's preaching, yet it was but for a time that they
rejoiced in his light. They grew weary of him. We never felt the burden
of those Eomish ceremonies, and therefore now grow weary of our liberty.
Whereas in the beginning of Luther's time, because they were eased fx'om
many beggarly, and which is worse, tyrannical ceremonies of Rome, there-
fore with much joy and eagerness they embraced the truth when it came to
be preached amongst them.

Therefore we are to praise God for the liberty of the church at this time,

312 VIOLENCE YICTOEIOUS.

that we have the word of God to rule our consciences, and that other
matters are not pressed on us but as matters of decency and order. Alas,
if we were in bondage to those proud popish wretches, our consciences
would be enthralled to a world of snares.

Last of all, ' From the days of the Baptist,' and so forward, * the kingdom
of heaven did sufler violence,' because from that time forward the Spirit
began to be more plentiftdly fjiven. Christ comes with his Spirit, which is
soul of our soul, and the life of our life. The Spirit is like a ' mighty
wind,' that moves the ship in the water. The ship is becalmed. It cannot
move unless there be a wind. So the soul cannot move to that which is
good without the Spirit. Now there is more abundance of the Spirit since
the coming of Christ. Christ, who is the king of his church, the Lord of
heaven and earth, he reserved the abundance of the Spirit till his own
coming, especially till he entered into heaven. Then the Spirit came in
abundance. ' It was poured upon all flesh,' Joel ii. 28. It was but, as
it were, dropped before, but then it was * poured out.' Then the Gentiles
came in, and the apostles received the Spirit in abundance. Therefore no
wonder that there was violence offered to the kingdom of heaven. Then
hence we may observe,

That the more clearly Christ and the blessed mysteries of Christ are ojjened,
the viore effectual the Sp>irit is, and the more heavenly men are, and more
eagerly disposed to spiritual things.

(1.) The reason and ground of it is in nature. The affections follow the
discovery of the excellency of things. When first the necessity of being in
Christ is laid open ; that there are but two kingdoms, the kingdom of Christ
and the kingdom of the devil, and that a man must either enter into the
kingdom of Christ, or be of the devil's kingdom still ;

(2.) And when, secondly, together with the necessity, the excellency of
Christ's kingdom is discovered, that it is a state that will make us all kings;
a state wherein we shall at length overcome all opposition of hell, sin,
death, the wrath of God ; that whereas earthly kingdoms are opposed, and
enthralled, and one dash against another, the kingdom of heaven is a state
that subdues all that is against it by little and little. As Christ overcame
death and the wrath of his Father, and now rules in heaven in his person,
so all his members shall overcome all in time. When the excellency of
this kingdom is laid open to the understandings of men, is it a wonder
that their affections are set on fire ? Will anything do .it more than such
a kingdom ?

(3.) Then, in the third place, ivhen it is hopeful, too ; when, together with
the necessity and excellency of it, there is assurance given us that xve shall
obtain it if we strive for it ; when it is offered freely, even grace and glory,
and we are entreated to receive grace : ' Come unto me, ye that are weary,'
&c.. Mat. xi. 28. Nay, we are threatened if we do not come, and we have
example of the worst sort of people : of Zaccheus, and the poor woman out
of whom the devils were cast ; of Peter, that denied Christ ; of Paul, that
persecuted him ; such as had been wretched persons, that have come out
of Satan's kingdom ; when these things are propounded, and understood,
and apprehended, men that are in their wits, that are not besotted by the
devil, men that are not in love with damnation, and hate their own souls,
they will embrace them. When they see a state discovered in Christ
wherein they are above angels, in some sort, above death and hell, that
they triumph over all in Christ, that because it is as sure that they shall
be crowned conquerors with Christ in heaven, as if they were there

VIOLENCE VICTOEIOUS. 313

already; when it is propounded thus hopefully, who would not offer
violence to this kingdom ? When John Baptist laid it open so clearly to
them, ' This is the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world,'
John i, 29, it made them offer violence to it.

And this is another reason why in the latter, the second spring of the
gospel — for there was a winter in the time of popery, it being a kingdom
of darkness, keeping people in ignorance — so many nations so suddenly
embraced the truth. Luther was a man that was wondrously exercised
and afflicted in conscience. This made him relish the doctrine of justifi-
cation by grace in Christ, and thereupon to lay open the mysteries of
Christ and the bondage of popery ; and this being once a-foot, the people's
minds being prepared out of the sense of their former bondage, whole king-
doms came in presently. As in the spring time, when there comes a fine
sunshine day, the prisoners are let loose out of the earth after a cold
winter, so after the winter of affliction and persecution, inward and out-
ward, came the sunshine of the gospel, and made all come forth and
flourish presently. Wheresoever Christ is taught powerfully and plainly,
and the excellency and necessity of the state we have by him, and that
men may partake of it, if they be not false to their own souls, there is
always violence offered to these things, because where the riches of Christ
are opened, the Spirit goes with it, and goes with violence, that it carries
all before it.

Hence, again, we may see that popish spirits are witty- in opposing the
unfolding of the gospel in the ministry, especially where there is conscience
and skill to unfold Christ plainly. They know when Christ is opened, all
their fopperies and inventions will grow base. The more Christ is un-
folded, the more people will grow in hatred of antichrist. The more they
see the light, the more they will hate darkness. For this cause they oppose
the unfolding of the gospel to the understanding of the people ; they would
keep people in ignorance that they may make them doat upon them. It
argueth a disposition dangerous, that shall never taste of the good things of
God, to be in a bitter temper against the unfolding of the gospel of Christ.
For we see here the discovery of it makes it wondrous effectual. John
Baptist laying open Christ clearer than he was discovered before, ' the
kingdom of heaven sufiereth violence.'

Here we are instructed what way we should take if we would bring ourselves
or others into a temper fit for heaven, to an earnest temper after holy things,
not to begin with dead outward actions, but to begin, as becomes the condi-
tion of reasonable men, as God deals with man, befitting the nature of man;
begin uith the understanduuj . Let us meditate seriously of the truth of Christ's
coming in the flesh, of the end of his coming, ' to dissolve the works of the
devil,' 1 John iii. 8, to bring us out of the state of nature to a better con-
dition. Meditate of the excellency of the state of grace, of the eternity 'and
excellency of the state of glory. Let us warm our hearts with these things.
When a man hath once these things and believes them, let him be cold and
dull if he can. And so, if we would gain others to a fit disposition for
heaven, let us labour to instruct them what their state by nature is ; what
kingdom they are born in ; that they are liable to hell and damnation ;
that they are under the possession of the ' strong man,' the devil, if the
stronger man bring them not out and dispossess him ; and let them know
withal the infinite love and mercy of God in Christ, offering a better state,
giving the gospel and promising his Spirit with his truth ; and if they be-
* That is, ' wise.'— G.

314

■\aOLENCE VICTORIOUS.

long to God, this will work upon them, or else nothing will. Other courses,
to punish men in their purse, or imprison them, or the like, may subdue
them to outward conformity, but if we would bring their souls to heaven,
let us endeavour to enlighten their understandings to see the danger they
are in, and to see the riches of grace and salvation that is proffered in
Christ, and this will ' compel them to come in,' Luke xiv. 33. There will
be no need of any other compulsion, no more than there can be need to
bid a man escape away that sees wild beasts about him, or to bid a guilty
person to flee to the city of refuge and take hold of the horns of the altar.
Let John Baptist come before Christ to make way for him, and presently
' the kingdom of heaven suffers violence ; ' and after Christ's time, when
the Spirit was more abundantly given, and the gospel more clearly opened,
the world stooped to the gospel. The gospel at length overcame the proud
sceptre of the Roman empire. They laid their crowns down before Christ's
gospel. _ The cross of Christ got above the crown in the preaching of the
gospel, it was so powerful. Thus, if we would have the number of heaven
enlarged, let us desire that God's truth may be opened plainly and power-
fully. John Baptist was a plain and powerful preacher ; a man of holy.life.
They all reverenced John as a holy man. Thereupon his doctrine canie to
be so effectual. This is the way whereby God will do good to those he
delights in. For others that are bitter atheists, whom God hath appointed
to damnation, the gospel hardens them and makes them worse. The
Pharisees were the worse by the preaching of Christ. When the gospel is
preached, some are made worse by it, and malign, and persecute it as far
as they dare. As the apostle saith, God is glorified in the damnation of
such bitter opposers, Rom. iii. 8. iWe are not to look to gain all by
preaching. Those that withstand it are sent by it with the more just
damnation to hell, but those that do belong to him are gained this way.

Let us labour, therefore, for a clear manifestation of Christ. There is
the treasure of all goodness in Christ, whatsoever is necessary to bring us
to heaven. And the more he is discovered and applied, the more we are
enriched with grace and comfort. Times of change may come ; and if times
of opposition and persecution come not, yet temptations will come, and the
hour of death will come, when we shall have occasion to use all the strength
and comfort we have; and the more dangerous the times are, the more sound
and clear knowledge of Christ we should labour for, and that will breed
this holy violence, that shall break thorough all oppositions whatsoever.

NOTES.

(a) P. 309. — ' As Luther said well, " The more violent the adversaries were, the
more free and bold was he.'" An often-repeated saying of his 'Table-talk' and
letters. Cf. note mi, Vol. III. page 633 ; also Vol. I. page 126.

(6) P. 811. — ' As we see in the Council of Trent.' For history of this celebrated
Council, see note-references in jj, Vol. III. page 532.

I take the present opportunity of correcting a mistake of Sibbes' in relation to this
Council. See note uuu, Vol. III. page 536. He there makes Luther observe ,that
' if they [the Papists] live and die peremptorily in all the points professed in the
Tridentine Council, they cannot be saved.' Sibbes gives no authority ; but it is plain
that Luther could not adduce the Tridentine Council, as the following brief quotation
from Bungener's History of the Council of Trent (by Scott, page 66) will shew : ' For
the first time (it was now the 22d of February) the Council met to deliberate in good
earnest. The legates appeared radiant with smiles. Why so ? . . Luther was dead:—Q.

ANGELS' ACCLAMATIONS.

NOTE.

The ' Angels' Acclamations ' forms the second of the four treatises which com-
pose 'Light from Heaven' (4to, 1638). Its separate title-page is given below*
For general title-page, see Vol. IV. page 490. G.

* ANGELS

Acclamations :

OR,

THE NATIVITY

of Cheist, celebrated by

the heavenly Host.

The late learned, and reverend Divme

Richard Sibs,

Doctor in Divinity, Master of Katherine Hall

in Cambridge, and sometimes Preacher

at Grayes-Inne.

IsAi 9. 6.
To us a Child is borne, to us a Sorme is given.

1 Pet. 1. 12.
Which things the Angels desire to looke into.

London,

Printed by E. P. for N. Bourne, at the Royall

Exchange, and Rapha Harford, at the gilt Bible, in

Queeues head Alley, in Pater-noster-Row.

16 38.

ANGELS' ACCLAMATIONS.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host prais-
ing God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good will towards men. — Luke II. 13, 14.

The words are few and pregnant, very precious, having much excellency
in a little quantity. The heavens never opened but to great purpose.
When God opens his mouth, it is for some special end ; and when the
angels appeared, it was upon some extraordinary occasion. This was the
most glorious apparition that ever was, setting aside that it was at Christ's
baptism, when the heavens opened, and the Father spake, and the Holy
Ghost appeared in the likeness of a dove upon the head of Christ,' Mat.
iii. 16, when all the Trinity appeared. But there never was such an appa-
rition of angels as at this time ; and there was great cause, for,

1. There was never such a ground for it, whether we regard the matter
itself, the incarnation of Christ. There was never such a thing from the
beginning of the world, nor never shall be in this world : for God to take
man's nature on him ; for heaven and earth to join together ; for the Creator
to become a creature.

2, Or whether ive regard the benefit that comes to %is thereby. Christ by
this means brings God and man together since the fall. Christ is the
accomphshment of all the prophecies, of all the promises. They were made
in him and for him. Therefore he was the expectation of the Gentiles.
Before he was born, he was revealed by degi'ees. First, generally, * the
seed of the woman,' &c.. Gen. iii. 15. Then, more particularly, * to
Abraham and his seed,' and then to one tribe, ' Judah,' that he should
come to him ; then to one family, the house of David ; and then, more
particularly, ' a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,' Isa. vii. 14, and the
place, ' Bethlehem,' Micah v. 2 ; till at last John Baptist pointed him out
with the finger, * Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of
the world,' John i. 29. Even as after midnight, the sun grows up by
little and little, till his beams strike forth in the morning, and after it
appears in glory, so it was with the ' Sun of righteousness ;' as he came
nearer, so he discovers himself more gloriously by degrees, till he was
born indeed ; and then you see here a multitude of angels celebrate his
nativity.

818 angels' acclamations.

Now, as before his birth he was revealed by degrees, so after his incar-
nation he was revealed to all sorts : to the old, in Simeon ; to women, in
Anna, a prophetess ; to wise men and to silly shepherds ; to all ranks of
men ; and to whomsoever the incarnation of Christ was revealed when he
was bom, they all entertained it with joy. The angels they sang and
praised God ; Simeon was even content then to die ; and Zechariah, you
see, beforehand breaks forth, ' Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,' &c., Luke
i. 68 ; and the shepherds went away rejoicing. There is a special passage
of divine providence in the carriage of this manifestation ; for Christ was
revealed to the wise men that were Gentiles by a star, because they were
given to star-gazing. He was discovered to the shepherds by the appari-
tion of angels. The scribes that were conversant in Scripture, they found
it out by searching the Scriptures. God applies himself to every man's
condition.

' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude,' &c.

You see here, however, Christ lay in the cratch,* in the manger, yet not-
withstanding there were some circumstances that shewed the gi'eatness of
his person, that he was no ordinary person. He lay in the cratch indeed,
but the wise men came and adored him ; and he appeared to the shep-
herds, poor men ; yet notwithstanding, here is an host of angels that praise
him. So likewise at his death he converted the good thief, and shadowed
the sun itself, and then he gloriously rose again. So that there were some
beams of his divine nature that broke forth in all his abasements. We see
here an apparition of angels. In the words consider these things.

Here is, first of all, an apparition of heavenly angels.

And then their celebration of Christ's birth.

The apparition : ' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of
the heavenly host.'

The celebration of it : ' praising God, and saying.'

The matter of the celebration and praising God,

' Glory to God in the highest,

* In earth peace,

' Good will towards men.'

I shall especially stand upon those words ; but somewhat is to be touched
concerning the apparition of these angels.

1. The circumstances of their apparition. They appear to poor shep-
herds.

God respects no callings.

He will confound the pride of men, that set so much by that that God
so little respects ; and to comfort men in all conditions.

2. Again, The angels appeared to them in the midst of their business and
callings; and indeed God's people, as Moses and others, have had the
sweetest intercourse with God in their affairs ; and ofttimes it is the fittest
way to hinder Satan's temptations, and to take him off, to be employed in
business, rather than to struggle with temptations. We many times meet
with comfort in our business, in our callings, that without f it, in specula-
tion and otherwise, we should never have.

3. And then they appeared to them in the night.
God discovers himself in the night of affliction.

Our sweetest and strongest comforts are in our greatest miseries. God's

* Tliat is, ' cradle.' Consult Haliwell, sub voce. — G.
t That is, ' outside of,' = apart from, — G.

angels' acclamations. 319

children find light in darkness ; nay, God brings light out of darkness itself.
We see the circumstances then of this apparition.

He calls these angels * a hfeavenly host,' in divers respects ; especially in
these :

(1.) An host /or number. Here are a number set down. A multitude
is distinct from an host ; but in that they are an host, they are a multi-
tude ; as in Dan. vii. 10, * Ten thousand times ten thousand angels attend
upon God.' And so. Rev. v. 11, there are a world of angels about the
church. In Heb. xii. 22, we are come to have communion with an ' innu-
merable company of angels.' He sets not down the number ; and here
appears ' a multitude of angels.' Worldly, sottish men that live here below,
they think there is no other state of things than they see ; they are only
taken up with sense, and pleasures, and goodly shows of things. Alas ! poor
souls ! There is another manner of state and frame of things, if they had
spiritual eyes to see the glory of God, and of Christ our Saviour, and their
attendants there — an host, a multitude of heavenly angels,

(2.) An host likewise implies order ; or else it is a rout, not an host or
army. * God is the God of order, not of confusion,' 1 Cor. xiv. 33. If
you would see disorder, go to hell. Surely disordered places and com-
panies are rather hells than am thing else ; nay, in some respects worse ;
for there is a kind of order even among the devils themselves. They join
together to destroy the church, and the members thereof. I note this by
the way. Here was an host of angels ; that is, they are an orderly com-
pany. What that order is, I confess with St Austin, is undetermined in
Scripture ; we must not rashly presume to look into these things {a).

(3.) Again, Here is consent ; an host all joining together in praising God :

* Glory to God on high.' And sure it is a heaven upon earth, when a com-
pany of Christians, led with one Spirit, shall join in one work to praise
God ; to - help one another in some spiritual way. When they meet
together to hear the word, and to pray to God, all with one consent, their
prayers meet in heaven. Christ commends union and consent. ' Where
two or three are met together in my name, I will be in the midst of them,'
Mat. xviii. 20 ; and ' whatsoever two or three shall ask in my name, if
they agree' (if there be no jarring, nor schism, nor breach among them),

* I will grant it,' Mat. xviii. 19. Agreement in good is a notable resem-
blance of that glorious condition we shall enjoy in heaven. This multitude
of angels they all agree with one consent.

(4.) An host of angels, it shews likewise their employment. An host is for
defence or offence. That is the employment of angels here below espe-
cially, for the defence of the church, and for the offence of the enemies of
the church. It is a great comfort to the church and children of God. The
church is in the midst of devils here. We are all strangers in the way to
heaven. We live in the midst of devils, and devils incarnate, devilish-
minded men, that are led with the spirit of the devil. But here is our
comfort, we have a multitude, an host of angels, whose office is to defend
the church, and to offend the enemies of the church, as we see in Scripture.

(5.) Again, An host implies strength. We have a strong garrison and
guard. We are kings in Christ, and we have need of a guard ; and God
hath appointed us a strong guard, a guard of angels. Angels severally are
strong creatures. We see one of them destroyed all the first-bom in Egypt ;
one of them destroyed the host of Sennacherib the Assyrian in one night.
If one angel destroyed a whole host, consisting of many thousands, what
can a multitude of heavenly angels do ? Yet all are for the service of

320 angels' acclamations.

Christ and of his church. These and such Hke observations we may gather
hence, that they are said to be an host of angels.

Beloved, we have need of such comforts ; afnd let it not seem slight unto
us to hear of angels because we see them not. It is a thing forgotten of
us too much. Why are we so cold, and dead, and dull, and distrustful in
dangers ? We forget our strength and comfort in this way. There is
now at this time an earthly host against the church, men led with anti-
christian spirits. Let us comfort ourselves, we have an heavenly host with
us ; as Elisha said to his servant, ' There are more with us than against
us,' 2 Engs vi. 16. If God see it good, this outward host of heaven, the
sun, moon, and stars, he can make them fight for his church, as in Sisera's
case. Judges v. 20. But there is another host, that see the face of God ;
that is, that observe and wait on his will and command. We have an
heavenly host within the heavens, that having a command from God, can
come down quickly for the defence of the church, and for every particular
Christian, not only one angel. That is but an opinion, that every one hath
his angel ; but even as God sees good, one or two, or more, a multitude,
an host of angels.

God useth angels, not for any defect of power in himself to do things, that
he must have such an host, but for the further demonstration of his good-
ness. He is so diffusive in goodness, he will have a multitude of creatures,
that they may be a means to diffuse his goodness : angels to the church,
and the church to others. It is for the spreading of his goodness, for he
is all in all in himself. Let it take impression in us, that we have such
glorious creatures for our service.

We see here this host of heavenly angels, they attend upon the Lord of
hosts at his birth, for Christ is the creator of angels, the Lord of them ;
not only as God, but as Mediator. As God, he is the creator of angels ; as
Mediator, he is the head of angels. Col. i. 16. It was fit therefore that an
host of angels should attend upon the Lord of angels ; it was for the honour
of Christ. God would let the world know — although they heeded it not,
there was no such thought in Augustus's court at that time — that there was
an excellent, glorious person born into the world. God himself took our
nature : Christ, Immanuel. Though he were neglected of the world, and
fain to lie in a manger, yet God took better notice of him than so. Heaven
took notice of him when earth regarded him not. Therefore God, to shew
that he had another manner of respect and regard to Christ than the world
had, he sends a multitude, an host of heavenly angels, to celebrate the nativity
of Christ.

There is much solemnity at the birth of princes ; and God, that is King
of kings and Lord of lords, he makes a solemnity likewise at the birth of
his Son, the greatest solemnity that ever was, an host of heavenly angels.
But these things I do but touch.

' And suddenly there was,' &c.

' Suddenly,' in an unperceivable time, yet in time ; for there is no motion
in a moment, no creature moves from place to place in a moment. God is
everywhere. ' Suddenly :' it not only shews us,

1. Somewhat exeviplarij from the quick despatch of the antjels in their busi-
ness — we pray to God in the Lord's prayer, ' Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven ;' that is, willingly, ' suddenly,' cheerfully —

2. But also it serves /or comfort. If we be in any sudden danger, God
can despatch an angel, ' a multitude' of angels, to encamp about us * sud-
denly.' Therefore, though the danger be present, and the devil present,

angels' acclamations. 321

and devilish-mincled men present to hurt us, God hatli a multitude, an host
of angels as present to defend us ; nay, as himself is everywhere, so in
the midst of his church he is present more than angels can be. He is not
only among us, but he is in us by his Spirit, to comfort and strengthen us.
Therefore let us stir up the Spirit of God in us, in all difficulties and dan-
gers whatsoever, considering we have such grounds of comfort every way.
What is the use and end of this glorious apparition ? In regard of the
poor shepherds, to confirm their faith, and in them ours ; for if one or two
witnesses confirm a thing, what shall a multitude do ? If one or two men
confirm a truth, much more an host of heavenly angels. Therefore it is
base infidelity to call this in question, that is confirmed by a multitude of
angels. And to comfort them likewise in this apparition. We see by the
way that for one Christian to confirm and comfort another, it is the work
of an angel, an angelical work ; for one man to discourage another, it is
the work of a devil. When Christ was in his agony, the angels appeared
to comfort him, Luke xxii. 43. We may take notice how willing and ready
these glorious spirits were to attend upon our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ,
in all the passages from his incarnation to his glory. We see they appeared
here at his incarnation ; they ministered unto him after his temptation ; at
his resurrection, then they were ready to attend him ; and at his ascension,
they were ready then ; but oh the welcome when he entered into heaven !
There was the glorious embracings, when all the host of heaven enter-
tained him at his ascension. In the garden, as I said, they comforted
him. Let us imitate them in this blessed work, if there be any in distress
that need comfort and confirmation. We love examples of great, noted
persons. Here you have an example above yourselves, the example of
angels ; who, to confirm and comfort the poor shepherds, appear in an host,
* a multitude of heavenly angels.' The angels, as they attend upon Christ,
so for his sake they attend upon us too ; for he is that Jacob's ladder.
Jacob's ladder, you know, stood upon the earth, but it reached to heaven,
and the angels went up and dow^n upon the ladder ; that is, it is Christ
that knits heaven and earth together, God and man ; and the angels by
Christ, having communion and fellowship with us, as I noted out of the
place, Heb. xii. 22, * we are come to an innumerable company of angels ;'
so that they attend upon us for Christ's sake, whose members we are.
They attend upon Christ mystical as well as Christ natural : ' For they
fire ministering spirits for the sakes of them that shall be saved,' Heb. i. 7.
And therefore in our childhood and tender years they have the custody of
us committed to them ; as Christ saith, ' their angels behold the face of
God ; ' and in our dangers they pitch their tents about us, and at our
death they carry our souls to the place of happiness, as they carried
Lazarus's soul into Abraham's bosom, and at the resurrection they shaU
gather our dead bodies together. So that as they never left our blessed
Saviour from his birth to his ascension, so they always attend upon his
members, his spouse. For his sake we have communion with the blessed
angels. These things may be of some use. But it is not that I mainly
intend. Thus much for the apparition.

2. Now the celchmiion is ' a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.'
The word signifies 'singing,'* as well as praise. It implies praise
expressed in that manner ; and indeed * praising God,' it is the best expres-
sion of the affection of joy. The angels were joyful at the birth of Christ
their Lord. Joy is no way better expressed than in ' praising God; ' and it
* See any good Lexicon, under the word amu. — G.

VOL. VI. X

322 angels' acclamations.

is pity tliat such a sweet affection as joy should run in any other strcnm,
if it were possible, than the ' praising of God.' God hath planted this
affection of joy in the creature, and it is fit he should reap the fruit of his
own garden. It is pity a clear stream should run into a puddle, it should
rather run into a garden ; and so sweet and excellent [an j affection as joy, it
is pity it should be employed otherwise than ' in praising God' and doing
good to men.

They express their joy in a suitable expression ' in praising God.' The
sweetest affection in man should have the sweetest employment. The
sweetest employment that joy can have is to be enlarged in love, ' to praise
God,' and for God's sake to do good to others.

See here the pure nature of angels. They praise God for us. We have
more good by the incarnation of Christ than they have ; yet notwithstand-
ing, such is their humility, that they come down with great delight from
heaven, and praise and glorify God for the birth of Christ, who is not their,
but our Eedeemer. Some strength they have. There is no creature but
hath some good by the incarnation of Christ ; to the angels themselves, yet
however they have some strength from Christ, in the increase of the num-
ber of the Church ; yet he is not the Eedeemer of angels. In some sort
he is the head of angels, but he is our Redeemer. ' To us a child is born ;
to us a Son is given,' Isa, ix. 6. And yet see, their nature is so pure and
so clear from envy and pride, that they even glorify God for the goodness
shewed to us — meaner creatures than themselves ; and they envy not us,
though we be advanced, by the incarnation of Christ, to a higher place than
they. For, beloved ! the very angels have not such affinity to Christ in
this as we. They are not the spouse of Christ. They make not up mys-
tical Christ. The church doth. The church is the queen, as Christ is the
king of all. It is married to Christ. Angels are not ; and yet although
they see us advanced in divers respects above them, yet they are so pure
ancl free from envy, that they join in ' praising God ' here in love to us.

Let us labour therefore for dispositions angelical; that is, such as may
delight in the good of others, and the good of other meaner than ourselves.

And learn this also from them : shall they glorify God for our good espe-
cially? and shall we be dull and cold in praising God on our own behalf?
Shall they come * suddenly from heaven,' and cheerfully, and willingly, and
' to praise God' for his goodness to us, and shall we be frozen and cold in
this duty, that is for our good more especially ? I hasten to that that
follows :

What is the matter of their celebration and gratulation ?

* Glory to God in the highest,
' In earth peace,

* Good will towards men.'

There is some difference in the readings. Some copies have it, * On
earth peace to men of good will,' to men of God's good will ; and so they
would have it two branches, not three. If the word be rightly understood,
it is no great matter (h).

1. First, The angels begin iiith the main and chief end of all. It is God's
end ; it was the angels' end, and it should be ours too, * Glory to God on
high.'

2. Then they wish the chief good of all, that whereby we are fitted for
the main end, ' peace.' God cannot be glorified on earth unless there be
peace wrought. For man else conceives God as an enemy. By this peace
we are fitted to glorify God. If we find reconciliation with God through

angels' acclamations. 323

Jesus Christ, tlien the sense of God's love in the work of reconciliation will
inflame our hearts to glorify God. Therefore, next to the glory of God,
they wish ' peace on earth.'

3. Then, thirdly, here is tlie rjround of all happiness from whence this
peace comes : from God's good will ; from his good pleasure or free grace,
' to men of God's good will.' So if we go back again, the good will and
pleasure of God is the cause and ground of peace in Christ ; and peace in
Christ puts us into a condition and stirs up to glorify God. So we sea
there is an order in these three.

To begin with the first :

* Glory to God in the highest.'

The angels, those blessed and holy spirits, they begin with that which is
the end of all. It is God's end in all things, his own glory. He hath none
above himself whose glory to aim at. And they wish ' glory to God in the
highest heavens.'

Indeed, he is more glorified there than anywhere in the world. It is the
place where his majesty most appears ; and the truth is, we cannot per-
fectly glorify God till we be in heaven. There is pure glory given to God
in heaven. There is no corruption there in those perfect souls. There is
perfect glory given to God in heaven. Here upon earth God is not glori-
fied at all by many. The whole life of many being nothing but a dis-
honouring of God, by abusing his ordinances, trampling upon his church
and children, by slighting his word and sacraments, there is little honour
given to God in the world, but only by a few, whom he intends to glorify
for ever. And indeed, if we will glorify God here, we must raise our
thoughts to heaven at that time ; raise them above the world, to heaven,
where we shall for ever glorify him ; where we shall join with the blessed
saints and angels, and siiig, * Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts,' &c.
In the mean time, let me add this by the way, that in some sort we may-
glorify God more on earth than in heaven. It may seem a paradox, but it
is true. That is thus : here upon earth we glorify God in the midst of
enemies ; he hath no enemies in heaven, they are all of one spirit. Here
upon earth we live not only among devils, but among men led. with the
spirit of the devil, where God is dishonoured ; and if here we take God's
side, and the truth, and gospel's side, and stand for God's cause, in some
sort, we honour God here more than we are capable to do it in heaven,
where there is no opposition. In this respect, let us ba encouraged to
glorify God, what we can here : for if we begin to glorify God here, it is a
sign we are of the number that he intends to glorify with him for ever.

The verb is not set down here ; whether it should be. Glory /,s given to
God ; or whether, by way of wishing, ' Let glory be given to God ; or by
way of prediction or prophecy for the time to come, ' Glory sJiall be to God,'
from hence to the end of the world. The verb being wanting, all have a
truth. For, first, it cannot be a wish, unless it were a positive doctrinal
truth, that all glory is due to God in the incarnation of Christ ; and because
all glory is due to him, thereupon comes the ground of wishing and of
prayer, ' Let God be glorified.' Why ? Because it is due. If it were
not a positive doctrinal truth, there could be no foundation to raise a wish
or a prayer : for what is a prayer, but the turning of a promise or truth into
a prayer ? And what is praise, but the turning of a truth into praise ? So
it is a doctrinal truth ; first, that God is to be glorified especially in Christ;
and in Christ, in this particular, in the incarnation of Christ. And it is a
wish for the time to come, let him be glorified ; and a prediction, God shall

824 angels' acclamations.

be glorified in the church. He shall alway have some to glorify him for
Christ, and especially for his incarnation.

' Glory to God on high.'

Glory is excellency, greatness, and goodness, with the eminency of it, so
as it may be discovered. There is a fundamental glory in things, that are
not discovered at all times. God is always glorious, but, alas ! few have
eyes to see it. But here I take it for the excellency and eminency of the
goodness and greatness of God discovered and taken notice of. In the
former part of the chapter ' light' is called the ' glory of the Lord,' ver. 9.
Light is a glorious creature. Nothing expresseth glory so much as
light. It is a sweet creature, but it is a glorious creature. It carries its
evidence in itself, ifc discovers all other things and itself too. So excellency
and eminency will discover itself to those that have eyes to see it ; and
being manifested, and withal taken notice of, is glory.

In that the angels begin with the glory of God, I might speak of this
doctrine, that

The glory of God, the setting forth of the excellencies and eminencies of the
Lord, should be the end of our lives, the chief thing we should aim at.

The angels here begin with it, and we begin with it in the Lord's prayer,
* hallowed be thy name.' It should be our main employment. * Of him
I and by him are all things, therefore to him be glory,' Eom. xi. 36. There-
I fore we should give God that which is his own ; ' Thine is the glory,' as
it is in the conclusion of the Lord's prayer. But this being a general point,
I will pass it by and come to the particular, in which it will more comfort-
ably appear, as this glory shines in Christ, in the incarnation of Christ,
there is matter of glorifying God, both the* angels and men.

And here I do not take the incarnation of Christ abstractively from other
things in Christ, but I take the incarnation of Christ as a foundation and
prerequisite to all the other good we have by Christ ; ' Glory to God on
high, now Christ is born.' Why ? Only that he is born ? No. But by
reason of this incarnation there is a union of the two natures, God and
man. So that by the incarnation, now Christ is man, and holy man. The
human nature in Christ is pure and holy, being sanctified by the Spirit and
united to God. Now Christ being not only man, but pure man and God-
man, God taking our nature to the unity of his person, hence it is that he
comes to be qualified for all that he did, and suffered after. It was from
hence that they had their worth. What was the reason that his being
made a curse, and to die for us, should be of such worth ? It came from
a person that was God-man ; nay, so near is the manhood to God, that what
the manhood did God did, because the person was God ; the second person
taking the nature of man, and what he suffered in his human nature, God
suffered according to man's nature. Hence comes that phrase of the com-
munication of properties. Whatever was done or suffered in man's nature,
God did as a mediator, God did it in that nature. Thereupon comes the
price of it. Thus the incarnation is a prerequisite and foundation to all
other benefits by Christ. Therefore take it conjoined, his iucai'nation, and
his death, and resurrection, and ascension, and all.

Well then, the incarnation of Christ, together with the benefits to us by it,
that is, redemption, adoption, dc, it is that wherein God ivill shew his glory
most of all. That is the doctrinal truth. The glory and excellency of God
doth most shine in his love and mercy in Christ. Every excellency of God
hath its proper place or theatre where it is seen, as his power in the crea-

* Qu. ' by ' ?— Ed.

angels' acclamations.

325

tion, his wisdom in his providence and ruling of the world, his justice in
hell, his majesty in heaven ; but his mercy and kindness, his bowels ot
tender mercy, do most of all appear in his church among his people. God
shews the excellency of his goodness and mercy in the incarnation of Christ,
and the benefits we have by it. Many attributes and excellencies of God

shine in Christ, as, • ^ nr, • + >

His truth: 'AH the promises of God are yea and amen m Christ,
2 Cor. i. 20. There is an accomplishment of all the promises.

And then his xvisdom, that he could reconcile justice and mercy, by jom-
incr two natures together. This plot was in heaven by God the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Trinity, that God and man should be joined
together. To join and knit two attributes seeming contrary, justice and
mercy ; to reconcile man by reconciling justice and mercy, and by such an
excellent way that God should become man, Emmanuel, this was a great
wisdom— to reconcile justice and mercy by such a person as should satisfy
justice and give way to mercy, that is, by Christ. God will lose none of
his attributes. His justice must be satisfied, that his mercy might be
manifested. The wisdom of God found out that way. It is a plot the

angels study in. tt t,

Likewise here is justice, justice fully satisfied in Christ. He became our
surety who is God as well as man. If no creature can satisfy God, God
can ; when the second person took our nature, and was our surety, and
died for us, he was the glory of his justice.

And of his holiness, that he would be no otherwise satisfied for sm. it
was so foul a thing, that to shew his hatred of it he punished it m his own
Son, when he became our surety. How holy and pure is God. That is,
what a separation is there in the nature of God from sin, considering that
he so punished it in his Son, our surety, that he made him cry out, ' My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' Mark xv. 34. We cannot
see the nature of God in anything in the world so much as m Christ, in
Christ we see, as in a glass, his infinite sweet wisdom, his justice and
holiness in hating and loathing of sin. _

But the main of all is his mercy and goodness, which set him on work
to contrive this great work of redemption by the incarnation and death of
Christ. The infinite, rich, glorious, abundant mercy— that is the main
thing wherein God is glorious now in Christ. Therefore everywhere you
have these and the like titles put to his goodness and mercy. The bounty
of God appeared, and the riches of his mercy, and the exceeding great
height, and breadth, and depth of his love. There are no words large
enough to set out the goodness and mercy of God in Jesus Christ. There-
fore I will only speak of this attribute, because this bears the mastery among
all the other attributes, though God be equally powerful and just ; and yet
he expresseth his mercy and grace most of all in Jesus Christ, towards
poor wretched man. For after the fall man being miserable and sinlul,
what attribute can exalt itself, but mercy to misery, and grace to sintul
man in pardoning his sin ? Considering in what terms man stood,_ there
was no other attribute could exalt itself but grace and mercy, to triumph
over misery and sin. As it is in a city, those that are otherwise equal in
honour, yet sometimes one bears rule above another ; and he that is now
magistrate and chief, take him at another time he is inferior to others ;
so since the fall the mercy of God bears office, and is chief governor and
commander over all the attributes of God. For as I said, what moved Crod
to set his wisdom on work to contrive such a thing as the salvation ot man-

326

ANGELS ACCLAMATIONS.

kind, to reconcile God and man in one person? His mercy moved liim.
What moved bim to satisfy his justice ? It was that an excellent way might
be made, without prejudice to any other of his attributes, for his free grace
and mercy ; That is it that set all the other on work. That is the main
triumphing attribute, considering man now standing in that exigence of
mercy. Therefore ' glory to God in the highest heavens,' especially for
his free grace and mercy in Christ.

Now that you may understand this sweet point, which is very comfort-
able, and indeed the grand comfort to a Christian, do but compare the glory
of God, that is, the excellency and eminency of God's mercy, and goodness,
and greatness of this work of redemption by Christ, with other things.

1. God is glorious in the u-ork of creation. 'The heavens declare the
glory of God,' and the earth manifests the glory of God. Every creature
indeed hath a beam of the glory of God, especially those celestial bodies in
the heavens, they praise God in their kinds, but with our mouths ; they give
us matter of praise. And if we have gracious hearts we take notice of it,
and magnify him for his goodness. His goodness appears in the use of
the creatures, and his greatness in the bulk of the creatures ; his wis-
dom, in ordering and ranking of them. So that his mercy shines in all
things in heaven and earth marvellously. Oh but, beloved, heaven and
earth shall come to nothing ere long ; and what is all this glory of the
goodness and greatness of God to us, if we be sent to hell after this short
life is ended ? What comfort is it that we go on the earth, and enjoy the
comforts that God gives us in this world, and then to perish for ever ?
Therefore the glory and goodness of God doth not so gloriously appear in
the creation of the world.

2. Nay, the glory of God's love and mercy sinned not to tis so, when ive
were in Adam ; not in Adam, for there God did good to a good man : he
created him good, and shewed goodness to him. That was not so much
wonder. But for God to shew mercy to an enemy, to a creature that was
in opposition to him, that was in a state of rebellion against him, it is a
greater wonder and more glory. It was a marvellous mercy for God to
make man out of the earth ; but here God was made man, he became man
himself. There all was done with one word, ' Let us make man.' It was
easily done. But in this, for Christ to become man for us, and to suifer
many things, to be ' made a curse for us,' it was not so eas}- a matter.
Therefore herein there is a great manifestation of the glory of God's good-
ness and mercy to us. For God hath set himself to be glorious in his
mercy, and goodness, and grace, in Christ. He hath set himself to triumph
over the greatest ill in man, which is sin, in the glorious work of redemp-
tion. So that you see here the greatest glory and mercy of God aj)pears
in our redemption by Jesus Christ, the foundation of which is his incarna-
tion. In Exod. xxxiv. G, God doth make an answer to Moses, who desired
to see the glory of God, that he might have it manifested to him, not out
of curiosity, but that he might love God the more, how doth God manifest
his glory to him? ' Jehovah, strong, merciful, glorious, pardoning sin and
iniquity.' When God would set himself to shew his glory in answering
Moses's petition, he doth it in setting out his glorious mercy and grace,
and loving-kindness, in pardoning sin and iniquit}^ to shew that he will now
have his glory most appear in the sweet attribute of mercy and compassion
in the forgiveness of sins, &c. In Titus ii. 12, ' The grace of God hath
appeared, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts,' &c. The
grace of God hath appeared. Grace hath not a body to appear visibly; ay,

angels' acclamations. 827

but Christ appeared; and when he appeared it was as if grace and love had
been incarnate, and took a bodj'. Bo that grace and mercy naost of all
shines in the incarnation of Christ.

I need not clear the point further, but only make a little use of it, and
so end. Doth the grace, and love, and mercy of God, those sweet attri-
butes, now appear and shew themselves in Jesus Christ ? I beseech you,
let us remember it — there is no point of divinity of more use and comfort
— especially in the greatest plunges and extremities ; for it answereth all
objections, the greatest and strongest that can be made.

The sinner will object, My sins are great, of long continuance and stand-
ing ; they are of a deep dye.

Look then upon God in Christ, and consider his end in the incarnation
of Christ. It was that his mercy, and goodness, and grace should be
exalted, and triumph over all man's unworthiness. The greater thy sin, the
greater will be the glory of his mercy; and that is it God seeks for now, to
be glorious in his mercy.

Again, Thy heart tells thee, that if there be any mercy shewed to such
a wretch as thou art, it must be no ordinary mercy.

It is true. God's mercy is no ordinary thing. Of all attributes he will
triumph in that. The glory of his mercy and goodness is that he seeks to
have of men, by the incarnation and redemption wrought by Christ, above
all things whatsoever.

Obj. Thou wouldst have infinite mercy.

Ans. Thou hast it in Christ.

Obj. Thy sins have abounded.

Ans. God's grace abounds much more.

Obj. Thy sins are mountains.

Ans. God's mercy is as the ocean, to cover those mountains.

Obj. But is it possible for God to forgive such a wretched sinner, that
hath been a blasphemer, &c. ?

Ans. It were not with men ; but, saith God, ' My thoughts are not as
your thoughts,' Isa. Iv. 8. You are vindictive in your dispositions, and
will not pardon ; but my thoughts are as far above yours as the heavens
are above the earth. Therefore bound not the infinite mercy of God,
wherein he will triumph, with thy narrow thoughts, but let it have its scope,
especially in plunges and assaults, and at such times as the best of us may
be brought unto. In Hosea xi. 9, ' I am God, and not man,' implying that
if he were man, we might have mean thoughts of him, confined thoughts;
but ' I am God, and not man,' therefore comfort yourselves in this, consider
how God sets himself to be glorious in his love and mercy to poor, miser-
able, wretched man in Jesus Christ.

You see the mercy of God in Christ, even in the sacrament. He doth
not only give Christ to us — ' So God loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son,' John iii. 16, to be born and to die for us — but his mercy is
a boundless mercy. We see he labours to strengthen our faith by these
pledges, that we make use of this. What if God be merciful in Christ !
and what if Christ be gracious, and there is nothing but grace and mercy !
If there be not an application, if there be not an interest, what benefit have
we by it ? We must interest ourselves in this glorious person, interest
ourselves in Christ, for it is founded upon Christ. All the glorious mercy
of God is grounded upon satisfaction of justice ; that is, in Christ. But
this is nothing except we interest ourselves in Christ, and in the mercy of
God ; for our approbation is the ground of all comfort. God out of Christ

328 angels' acclamations.

is a ' fountain sealed.' He is a fountain of mercy, but be is sealed up.
He is a * consuming fire,' but in Cbrist be is a cbeering, comforting fire.
But tbis is notbing to us, unless we be in Cbrist. We must bave interest
in Cbrist. "We must be ' bone of bis bone, and flesb of bis flesb.' He
hatb married our nature, tbat we migbt be married to bim. We bave no
benefit by bis incarnation else. Now all our comfort is by tbis union
and communion witli Cbrist, by marrying ourselves to Cbrist, by strength-
ening our faitb in tbis union and communion, tbat so we may make use
of tbe boundless mei'cy of God in Cbrist. Tberefore bow should we be
encouraged to come to the sacrament, to enjoy tbis comfort !

You bave beard, beloved, of tbe joy of the angels, of their manner of
celebrating tbe birth of Christ ; and if the angels should leave heaven, and
come down upon earth, and take upon them bodies, how would they cele-
brate the incarnation of Christ ! * You see here, ' Glory to God on high.'
This would be the course wherein they would carry themselves to glorify
God, answerable to their song. So should we do, if we will be like the
blessed angels. We see how to celebrate tbe nativity of Christ. We need
not go to fetch joy from hell to celebrate it. If the devil should be incar-
nate, and come to live among men, bow would be celebrate tbe incarnation
of Cbrist otherwise than in many places it is ? If we do not love to bave
our portion with devils, surely we should not imitate those whose state and
condition we are afraid of. The angels saw matter enough in the thing
itself to make them sing, ' Glory to God on high, on earth peace, good
will towards men.' What ! Hath God been so rich in love to us in Christ,
so wondrous in mercy, as to take our miserable nature, not at the best, but
at the worst, and to take our condition upon bim ? Here is matter of joy ;
and shall we be beholden to the devil for joy, when we should rejoice for
Cbrist ? Will not the thing itself yield matter of rejoicing ? Oh base
dispositions, tbat we should not content ourselves with homogeneal, uniform
joy to tbe thing itself. I desire repentance, and reformation of what hath
been amiss. If there bo any tbat bave been guilty in this kind, that intend
to come near God in these holy mysteries, let them know, that God will be
honoured of all tbat come near bim ; let them take it to heart. As Ter-
tullian said in bis time, What ! shall we celebrate that which is a public
matter of joy to all tbe church, for a public shame, in a disgraceful way ? (c)

I beseech you, consider of these things. ' Repent, for the kingdom
of God is near,' saith the Baptist, Mat. iv. 17. What ! shall we therefore
give carnal liberty to all looseness, as if Cbrist came to bring Christians
liberty to licentiousness ? Shall we, instead of repenting, run further and
further into guilt, and indispose ourselves to all goodness ? Is that the
reasoning of the Sciiptures ? No. ' Repent, for the kingdom of God is at
hand.' Change your lives, for Christ and the fruits of tbe gospel are at
band. ' The grace of God hath appeared in Christ.' What ! to teach us
to live as we list, and to be more disordered than at other times ? Oh no.
' To live soberly and justly,' Titus ii. 12, not to wrong any body, and holy
and godly in tbis present world, Tbis is tbe Scripture reasoning, and thus,
if ever we look for comfort from God and Christ, we must reason too.

Let none think it too late to speak of these things now ; but those that
have not had tbe grace of God to keep them innocent, let them make use
of the grace of God to repent ; and as tbe phrase of some of the ancients
is, repentance is a board to escape to the shore, after we have made ship-

* In margin here, 'These sermons were preached at the feast of Christ's nativity.'
— G.

angels' acclamations. 329

wreck, and done things amiss (<-/). Therefore, as I said, those that have
not had the grace before to be innocent, let them make use of the grace of
God, that now invites them to repentance, or not presume to come to these
holy things. I speak it, not only to free mine own soul, but to free you
from contracting further guilt ; for do you think to make amends by
coming to the sacrament, without repentance of what you have done before ?
* What hast thou to do,' saith God, ' to take my name into thy mouth,'
Ps. 1. 16 — to take my sacrament into thy mouth — ' when thou hatest to be
reformed?' God accounted his own service as the ' cutting off a dog's
head,' when they came indisposed and unprepared, Isa. Ixvi. 3. The
sacrament is bane and poison to us, if we come without repentance. What
saith the apostle ? * For this cause,' — because you come unreverently to
the things of God — ' some are sick, and some weak, and some sleep,' 1 Cor.
xi. 30. God struck them with death for it. And it is a great cause why
many are hardened in their sins, and go on still ; because God executes
these spiritual judgments for profaning these holy things, thinking to daub
with God,- and to compliment with him in an easy performance.

I know those that belong to God are suffered sometimes to do things
amiss, and to fall into errors and miscan-iages, that they may know them-
selves better. And indeed, much of our spiritual wisdom is gotten by the
sight of our own errors. We grow more stablished after, against the like
temptations, for the time to come ; and we can say by experience. It is
good that I know the foolishness of my own heart, &c. But he that God
hath no delight in, he swells and rages against any admonition, though it
be in love to his soul. I hope there are none such here. Therefore, those
that have made their peace with God, let them come to these holy mysteries
with comfort, notwithstanding any thing before ; for God hath prepared
these things, not for angels, but for weak men, whose faith stands in need
to be strengthened.

And let us not think that Christianity is a matter of compliment ; that
because we are baptized, and come to hear the word, and receive the sacra-
ment, all is well. For we may do all this, and yet be greater sinners than
Turks, or Jews, or pagans ; for the most horrible sins are committed in the
church. Where is the sin against the Holy Ghost committed ? sins against
light and against conscience, but where the conscience and understanding
is most enlightened ? There be the horrible, provoking sins, where there
is more light and direction to live in another way. When the grace of God
and the riches of Christ are opened, and yet men live in their sins, against
conscience and the light of the gospel, so far is the outward performance
from excusing in sickness and at the hour of death, that it aggravates our
guilt and damnation when we make not a right use of the holy things of God.

That which I shall next stand upon, shall be to shew,

1. How we may know whether we glorify God for Christ orno ;

2. And then the hindrances that keep us from glorifying God for this
excellent good ;

3. And the means how we may come to glorify God.

1. For the first, of glorifying God in general, I will not speak much. It
would be large" ; and the point of glorifying God is most sweetly considered,
as invested in such a benefit as this, when we think of it, not as an idea
only, but think of it in Christ, for whom we have cause to glorify God, and
for all the good we have by him.

(1.) Fu-st, then, we hold tune with the blessed angels in giving glory to
* Cf.'Ezek. xxii. 28.— G.

830

ANGELS ACCLAMATIONS.

God, ivhen we exalt God in our souls above all creatures and things in the
world; when we lift liim up in his own place, and let him be in our souls,
as he is in himself, in the most holy. God is glorious, especially in his
mercy and goodness. Let him be so in our hearts, in these sweet attri-
butes, above all our unworthiness and sin. For God hath not glory from
us till we give him the highest place in our love and joy and delight, and
all those affections that are set upon good, when they are set upon him as the
chief good; then we give him his due place in our souls, we ascribe to him
that divinity, and excellenc}^ and eminency that is due to him. And this
especially appears in competition and opposition of other things, when we
will not offend God for any creature, when we can say as the psalmist,
* Whom have I in heaven but thee, and what is there in earth in comparison
of thee ?' Ps. Ixxiii. 25. Therefore let us ask our own thoughts often what
that is, that our affections of delight and joy and love, and all the sweetness
and marrow of our souls, is spent on, and runs after. Is it the sweet love
of God in Christ, the excellent state we have in Christ ? It is an excellent
sign. Surely the blessed saints in heaven, and those that are in earth that
look for heaven, are thus disposed for the most part, especially when they
set themselves in their devotions before God. Let us examine what is
highest in our souls. ' The loving-kindness of the Lord is better than life
itself,' saith the psalmist, Ps. Ixiii. 3. Then we give God glory, when we
set hght by life itself, as holy Saint Paul could say. What ! do you tell me
of suffering at Jerusalem ? ' I am not only ready ' to do that, but to * die
for the name of Christ,' Acts xx. 24, and in Philip, i. 20, * so God may be
magnified by my life or death.' I am at a point ; so if the question be
whether we shall sacrifice this blood and life of ours, or dishonour God and
wrong the gospel, or be any way prejudicial to the truth known, when we are
ready to part with all, with father and mother, and houses and lands, and
all for Christ, then with the angels we say, ' Glory be to God on high.'
Therefore in a state of opposition, when we cannot enjoy both, let us leave
the creature and cleave to God.

(2.) Then again, we give glory to God for Christ, when we take all the
favours we have from God in Christ, when we see Christ in everything. * All
things are ours because we are Christ's,' 1 Cor. iii. 23. It is by Christ
that we are heirs, that we have any comfortable interest. Therefore, when
we accept all in Christ, and give God in Christ the glory of all, we practise
this that the angels do here ; we give glory to God.

. (3.) Then again, we give glory to God tchen ice stir up others. All the
angels consent. There was no discord in this harmony of the angels.
When we all join together and stir up one another, and labour to promote
the knowledge of God in Christ all the ways we can — every one in our place
and calling, magistrates and ministers, and every one in our families —
labour that Christ may rule there, that God in Christ may be known. In
Ps. Ciii. 20, seq., there the psalmist stirs up himself to glorify God, and he
stirs up the angels, and here the angels stir up men, ' Glory to God on
high,' &c. When there is a zeal of God's glory, and a disposition fit to
glorify God, there will be a stirring up one of another — angels men, and
men angels — and a wishing that God may have glory in heaven and earth.
Therefore those that labour not in their places that the truth may be made
known, that for base and worldly ends are opposers of the publishing of the
gospel any way — as it is the fashion now, they will not appear openly, but
cunningly undermine the gospel under pretences — they bear no tune with
these blessed angels. For those that have dispositions like them will study

angels' acclamations. 831

how this blessed truth may be promoted and propagated, and spread even
over the world. Therefore we should labour every one to spread the glori-
ous gospel of Christ, especially those that are ministers, whose office it is
to unfold and open the ' unsearchable riches of Christ.'

(4.) Again, We glorify God in Christ, ivhen ice see such glory and mercy
of Christ, as it doth transform us and change us, and from an inward change
vve have alway a blessed disposition to glorify God, as I shewed out of
2 Cor. iii. 18.* This is the difterence between the glass of the gospel and
the glass of the law and of the creatures. In the law we see the beams of
the justice of God, ' Cursed is every one that continueth not in all,' &c..
Gal. iii. 10, and the beams of his power and goodness in the creature. But
it doth not change and transform us to be good and gracious. But when
we see the glory of God, of his goodness and infinite mercy, shining in the
face of Jesus Christ — for we dare not look upon God immediately — it
changeth the soul to be gracious like unto Christ. Therefore if we find
that the knowledge of God in Christ hath changed our dispositions, it is a
sign then we give glory to God indeed. For to glorify God is an action
that cannot proceed but from a disposition of nature that is altered and
changed. The instrument must be set in tune before it can yield this
excellent music, to glorify God as the angels do ; that is, all the powers of
the soul must be set in order with grace by the Spirit of God. If the
meditations and thoughts of the gospel have altered our dispositions to love
God, and that that pleaseth God, to do good to men, to delight in goodness,
it is a sign we are instruments in tune to glorify God, and that we have an
apprehension of the love and mercy of God in Christ as we should. For it
hath a transforming power to work this. ' The grace of God will teach us
to deny ungodliness and wordly lusts, and to live holily,' Titus ii. 12.
When the grace of God, that is, the free love of God in Christ, in the
forgiving our sins and advancing us to heaven, hath this eifect in our
Bouls, it is a sign we have a true notion and apprehension of the excellency
and eminency of God's grace. Otherwise, if we ' turn the grace of God
into wantonness,' Jude 4, to make the benefits by Christ a_ pretence and
covering for our wicked and loose lives, we know not what it is to glorify
God ; but though in words we say, * Glory be to God,' yet in our lives we
deny it, as the apostle saith, Titus i. 16. The hypocrites in Isa. Ixvi. 5,
they had good speeches in their mouths. Saith God, ' Hear the word of
the Lord, ye that tremble at his word : your brethren that hated you, and
cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified.' _ So you
shall find those that are opposers and persecutors, and haters of sincerity,
will sing ' Gloria Patri,' ' God be glorified ;' but what good will this do
them if they have diabolical, Satanical dispositions, if they be like the devil
in opposing the truth, and hating that that is good ? The devils in the
gospel could glorify God for their own ends : ' We know that thou art the
Son of God,' Luke iv. 41. So devils incarnate can come to church and
receive the sacraments, and seem to praise God. Oh, but there must be a
change ; for to glorify God is a work of the whole man, especially of the
Spirit. * All that is ivithin me, praise his holy name,' Ps. ciii. 1. It came
from the heart-root of a sanctified judgment, out of grounds why we do it.
The wish of the angels here, ' Glory to God on high,' it came from a good
ground, because they knew God is to be glorified in Christ. For judicious
phrases are founded upon truths. So there must be a sanctified judgment
to be the ground of it, and the aff"ections must be in tune answerable to those
* Cf. ' Excellency of the Gospel above the Law,' Vol. IV. page 201, seq.—d.

332

ANGELS ACCLAMATIONS.

truths. ^ Then we are fit to glorify God. And all this is by the power of
the gospel transforming us.

^ (5.) Again, Wc glorify God rchen ive take to heart anything that inay
hinder, or stop, or eclipse God's truth, and obscure it; when it works zeal in
us in our places, as far as we can ; when it affects us deeply to see the
cause of religion hindered any way. If there be any desire (of glorifying
God, there will be zeal. The heart will move with a kind of indignation
when God is dishonoured, and his truth eclipsed with false doctrine or by
ill practice. It cannot be otherwise. It is out of the nature of the thing
itself. Therefore those that either are instruments of stopping or obscur-
ing the truth, or causing it to be reproached by their wicked lives, or if
they be not instruments, yet they do not take it to heart when they see
God dishonoured, surely they can speak little comfort to themselves. They
have neither angelical nor evangelical dispositions ; for if they had the
knowledge of the gospel it would work this in them.

(6.) Again, If we apprehend this glorious mystery of Christ in the gospel
aright, it will work in us a glorious joy ; for joy is a disposition especially
that fits us to glorify God. Then we are fit to ' glorify God,' when our
hearts are enlarged with joy ; when we think of God in Christ ; when we
think of the day of judgment ; when we think of heaven ; when we think
of hell with joy, as being subdued ; and bless God for Christ ; when we can
think of all that is opposite as conquered in Christ. So that our joy is
enlarged in the apprehension of our own blessed condition. It is a good
sign we are in a disposition to ' glorify God.' But I will not enlarge my-
self further in this point.

2. This being so excellent a duty, to which we are stirred by the angels,

* Glory to God on high,' &c., what are the main hindrances of it, that we
give not God more glory ?

(1.) The main hindrances are, a double veil of ignorance and unbelief, that
we do not see the glorious light of God shining in Jesus Christ ; or else if
we do not know it, we do not believe it ; and thereupon, instead of that
blessed disposition that should be in the soul, there comes an admiration
of carnal excellencies, a delighting in base things.

This ignorance is partly from the darkness of our own hearts, being
overcast sometimes, that such great things are too good to be true. Our
hearts have a hell of unbelief in them.

And sometimes the policy of Satan, who casts dust in our eyes, and
labours that we may not see the glory of God in the gospel : 2 Cor. iv. 4,

* The God of this world hath blinded their eyes,' &c. Ignorance arising
from within or without is a great cause why we do not see the excellencies
of God. Therefore no wonder if, where the gospel is not preached, that the
devil hath a kind of reign, and God is not honoured at all, because the
devil is the prince of darkness, and rules in darkness. That is one cause,
ignorance.

(2.) So likewise unbelief, when we hear and see and know the notion of
mercy and of Christ, and can dispute of these things, like men that talk of
that they never tasted of. The devils know all these things better than
any man ; yet they do not ' glorify God,' because they do not believe that
these things pertain to them. Men want a light suitable to the truth of the
things themselves. A man may see them with a natural light, or with the
light of education, or by books or the like ; but not in a spiritual and pro-
per light. He sees not spiritual, heavenly things, in a spiritual light. And
that is the reason he believes them not. These two veils are the cause why

angels' acclamations. 333

we see not the light of God shining in the gospel, and why we do not glo-
rify him. Light is a glorious creature. It was the j&rst creature. It is
not only glorious in itself, but it shews the glory of all other things too.
If we had all the sights in the world presented to us, if there were no light
to discover them, or no sight in our eyes, if either be wanting, all the glory
of them would be lost. So it is in the gospel. Though there be wondrous
admirable things there, if we want either light or sight ; if the light shine
round about us, ' and the god of this world have blinded our eyes,' and
infidelity have blinded us, how can we * glorify God,' wanting a heavenly,
proper, peculiar, spiritual light, suitable to the things ? For a natural
man, by the light that he hath, cannot judge of them. These are the main
hindrances, the veil of ignorance and unbelief.

(3.) And, on the contrary, there is another hindrance ; that is, too much
Uijht ; either want of light altogether, or too much light, when by the preach-
ing of the word of God, awaking our conscience, and shewing our sins so
enormous, so transcendent, so odious, that we forget mercy in Christ, and
so dishonour Christ, to set the sins of the creature above the infinite mercy
of the Creator ; as those that doubt, and from doubting, proceed to despair
of the mercy of God, seeing the vileness of their sins in the true colours
of them, and seeing and feeling God's anger and wrath, together with
their sins in the conscience ; here is too much light one way, and not look-
ing to the other light, this excellent, glorious, infinite light of God's
mercy, shining in the gospel. They look not on God in ' the face of Christ.'
Out of some stubbornness and pride they flatter themselves ; they will not
believe ; they will not receive the consolations due to them, but dwell
upon the consideration of their unworthiness and sins ; and Satan holds
them in that slavery and bondage. This is a great hindrance of glorifying
of God, when we lift up our sins above the mercy of God in Jesus Christ.
This is to take away God and Christ altogether ; for if the mercy, and rich
and bountiful goodness of God, wherein he will be infinitely glorious, were
not greater than our sins, it were not the mercy and bounty of a God. God
should not be glorious in it. But there are but few of these that miscarry ;
God usually shines upon them at the last. There are three ranks of men.
Some are in the first profane, dead, loose Christans, that were never under
the law, that never understood the corruption of nature, nor themselves.
Some are brought from that to understand themselves a little too much,
that are under the law, and feel the flashes of God's wrath. And some, in
the third place, are brought from hence to be under grace. That is the
only happy condition, to be under the grace of God in Christ. Some
men never come to the second step. They never understand what sin is,
and what the anger and wrath of God is. They will give their conscience
no leisure to tell them what their condition is. There is hope of the
second that they will come to the third rank ; but for a company of pro-
fane persons, opposers of goodness, to talk of the mercy of God in Christ,
they are not in the next step to it. A man must be sensible of his sins
and of his misery before he can have grace. Therefore, for those that have
too much hght, though it be a great fault in some, and hinders God of
much glory, and themselves of much comfort, out of this peevish stub-
bornness of theirs, yet there are not many of them, and, as I said, few of
them miscarry.

Now, from these two veils that hinder the glory of God, there come
other hindrances ; for the soul of man will wonder and admire at some-
what. It wiU have somewhat in the eye of it. Hereupon, not seeing or

834 angels' acclamations.

not believing the mercy, and goodness, and love of God, and the excellent
prerogatives of a Christian issuing from the goodness of God, and the fruits
of it, they doat upon some worldly excellency ; either they are proud of
their parts, and so God is robbed of his honour, or on creatures meaner
than themselves. For the base nature of man, since the fall, it doats upon
earth, upon gold and silver, mean and base things, not to be compared to
the excellency of man, or else upon some duties they perform, upon their
own works, as if God should be beholden to them. For not knowing them-
selves well, and the infinite glory of God in Christ, that God must have all
the glory, not only of happiness, but of grace that brings us to happiness,
they glory in that they have done ; as in popeiy, they think they merit
much by their performance. In the night time a torch seems a goodly
thin<f ; and sometimes rotten wood will shine ; but in the day time, when
the sun appears, the very stars shine not ; we care not for meaner lights.
For what good do they then ? So the soul, when it wants a sight of the
greatest excellency, it doats upon rotten wood, upon every torch-light.
Many vain things seem to be great. A man may see by the dispositions of
many what they admire and stand upon most. Their carriages shews it
well enough. It argues a corrupt and weak judgment. You see what are
the main hindrances.

3. Now, the way to attain to this glorious duty, to glorify God. The next
thing shall be to give some directions, because it is a most necessary duty.
Is it not that we pray for in the Lord's prayer, ' Hallowed be thy "name' ?
And what is the end that we were created and redeemed for, but that God
may have some glory by us ? Therefore, being a necessary absolute duty,
let us hearken to some directions that may help us that way.

(1.) First, Therefore, if we would glorify God, ice mast redeem some time to
think of these thlnr/s, and bestow the strength of our thniif/Jits this umj. The
soul being the most excellent thing in the world, it is fit it should be set on
the exceilentest duty. Man being in such an excellent condition, being
heir of heaven, and having an understanding soul, it is fit the most excel-
lent part of the most excellent creature should be set upon the most excel-
lent object. Now, the most excellent part of the soul is the understanding.
It kindles all the affections, and leads all the rest. Therefore let us take
some time to meditate and think of these things. What we are by nature,
and the misery we are exposed to by sin, that whatsoever we have more
than hell is more than we deserve ; and then withal, think what we are
advanced to in Christ; v/hat we are freed from, — that cursed condition ; and
what we shall be freed from, — the sting of death ; and all that we fear for
the time to come. Think of what we are freed from, and what we are
advanced to, and by whom. By God becoming man : a mystery that might,
nay, that doth ravish the very angels themselves ; God-man, now in heaven,
making good what he did on earth, by his intercession. And then the
ground of all, the infinite love, and mercy, and bounty of God to poor dis-
tressed man. The thought of these things will inflame the heart. Now,
they never work upon the heart thoroughly till they end in admiration ;
and indeed the Scripture sets it down in terms of admiration, ' So God
loved the world.' ' .So.' How ? * So, as I cannot tell how, I cannot express
it ; and ' what love hath God shewed us, that we should be called the sons
of God !' 1 John iii. 1. And then the fruits that we have by this incar-
nation of Christ, and by his death, they are admirable : ' peace that passetli
understanding,' Philip, iv. 7, 'joy unspeakable and glorious,' 1 Pet. i. 8.
So that the mystery is wonderful, and the dignity wonderful, and the fruits,

angels' acclamations. 335

the comfort, and peace, and joy, wonderful ; everything is an object of
admiration. Therefore when we think and meditate of these things, let us
never end till our souls be wound up to admiration of the excellent love of
God. We wonder at things that are new, and rare, and great. Is there
anything more new and rare than that that never was the like, for God to
become man ? Is there anything more excellent than the benefits we have
by Christ becoming man, to free us from so great misery, and to advance
us to so great happiness ? If anything be an object of admiration, surely
it must be this. Therefore the apostle doth well to give all the dimensions
to the love of God in Christ, ' height, and breadth, and depth, and length.'
It is a love ' passing knowledge,' Eph. iii. 19.
Quest. What good will come by this ?

Ans. When the soul is thus exercised, then it ivill be Jit to * glorify God.'
When it is in this frame, it will think itself too good for any base service
of sin. Eagles will not catch at flies. When the soul is lift up to con-
sider God's love and mercy in Christ, will it be catching at every base
thing in this world ? No. It will not. The soul never sins, but when it
loseth this frame, to have a judgment suitable to things. When our
judgment and afiections are lost of the best things, then comes in a judg-
ment and affection to other things as better. So losing that frame the soul
should be in, we fall to the creature, to commit spiritual fornication with
that.

Let us labour to keep our souls in this temper, begin every day with this
meditation, to think what we were, what we are now in Christ, what we
shall be, and by what glorious means all this was wrought, that so the soul
may be warmed with the love of God in Christ. This frame of spirit will
not suffer the soul to sin, to stoop to base sinful lusts.

(2.) Now, to help this, in the next place, beg of God the ' Spirit of revela-
tion ' to discover to us these things in their own 2^>'oper light, ' for they are
spiritually discerned.' Now the Spirit knows the breast of God, what the
love of God is to every one in particular, and he knows our hearts too.
Therefore the apostle desires of God 'the Spirit of wisdom and revelation,'
Eph. i. 17, to discover these things to us, not only that they are truths, but
that they are truths to us. For unless we know these things belong to us
in particular, we cannot glorify God as we should. They are in themselves
glorious things : to hear of God's mercy in Christ; of God becoming man ;
to hear of kingdoms and crowns. Oh, but when there is a spirit of appro-
priation to make these our own, that God in Christ loves us — * who loved
me, and gave himself for me,' Gal. ii. 20 — then the soul cannot but break
forth with the angels here, * Glory to God on high.' Therefore beg the
Spirit to reveal to us our part and portion, that he would shew his face to
us, that he is to us a Father in Christ. Surely in hearing, meditation,
and prayer, &c., we shall find a secret whispering and report from heaven,
that God is our Saviour, and that our sins are forgiven, especially when
we stand in most need of this comfort. Let us therefore beg of God to
take away the veils of ignorance and unbelief, and openly to reveal his
fatherly bowels and tender mercy to us in Christ ; to discover to us in
particular more and more our interest in the same by his Spirit, that only
knows the secret of our hearts, and being above our hearts can settle our
doubts. Only the Spirit can do it. For as God only works salvation, so
the Spirit only can seal to our souls our salvation. This is one excellent
way to help us to glorify God.

And add this as motive, as a plea, not to move God so much as to

336 angels' acclamations.

move and to satisfy our hearts, and to strsngtlien our faith, that it is the
end of oar lives and the jritch of our desires to 'glorify God.' ^ Therefore we
desire God to reveal himself so far to us, to be our Father in Christ, that
we may glorify him. Surely it is a forcible plea. God will do that that
is suitable to his end. ' He hath made all things for his own glory,' Proy.
xvi. 4. Especially the work of redemption in Christ is for the glory of his
rich mercy ; and we desire the sense of his mercy and love for this end,
that we may be fitter to glorify God. It is a prevailing argument, fetched
from God's own end.

(3.) And let us labour daily more and more to see the vanity of all thinys
in the world. Put the case we have honours and large possessions in the
world, that we wanted nothing; if this were severed from God's love in Christ
for life everlasting, what comfort could we have in this, especially at the
hour of death? Let us see, therefore, the vanity and emptiness of all
thinf^s else out of Christ, and the good we have by Christ, what all will
be ere long. The daily thoughts of that will be a good means ; for we
must empty ourselves of that we are, that we may be filled with that we
are not ; and we must daily consider the emptiness of the creature where-
with we labour to support ourselves. For when men have no goodness in
themselves, they will have an excellency in the creature. Therefore, when
we see ourselves out of Christ, to be nothing but fuel for God's vengeance,
and see that the creature can afford us nothing but vexation, these thoughts
that these things are so, and out of experience, will make us draw near to
God upon all occasions. It will make us glorify him and abase ourselves.
What made Job abase himself and glorify God ? When he drew near to
God, and God drew near to him. ' I abhor myself,' Job xhi. 6 ; and so
we see in Abraham, Gen. xviii. 27. Let us draw near to God upon all
occasions, in the word and prayer, and in the sacraments, and this will
make us see our own nothingness and God's greatness ; for that is the way
to honour him, to see his greatness, and a nothingness in the creature ;
that all things in him are so excellent, and out of him nothing, and worse
than nothing.

Now we are to draw near to God in the sacrament ; and the nearer to
God, the more we honour him. Who honours God most ? Surely Christ,
because he is so near him, being God and man in one person ; and next to
him the blessed angels ' glorify God.' They are near him. Therefore, in
Isa. vi. 2, they * cover their faces,' it being impossible for the creature to
comprehend the great majesty of God; and they cover their feetin
modesty. The nearer we draw to God in the meditation and consideration
of his excellency in the ordinances, the more humble and abased we shall
be in ourselves ; and the more we shall honour God, seeing his excellency,
especially of his love. So next to the angels the saints : ' all thy works
praise thee,' Ps. cxlv. 10 ; they give matter and occasion, but ' thy saints
bless thee.' If it were not for a few saints on earth, though all the works
of God are matter of praise, they could not praise God : ' thy saints bless
thee.' And the nearer we come to God, the fitter we are for this. Now,
there is a wondrous near-coming to God in the sacrament. If we come
prepared, we come to have communion and strengthening in Christ. He
is both the inviter and the feast itself. We come to be made one with him :
' bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.' Therefore, if we come prepared,
this is the way to bring us to a disposition to glorify God. You see here
the wondrous, infinite love of God in the sacrament, to stoop so low to his
creature, to strengthen our faith by giving us these things. God had been

angels' acclamations. 887

good to us whether he had given us his oath and his seal or no, but he
knows we are weak, and unbeHeving, and doubting ; therefore to help us
he hath given us not only his promise, but his oath, and besides his oath
he hath given us signs and seals. Here is wondrous mercy. Let us be
encouraged to come in and admire the love of God, not only in giving his
Son Christ for us, but in afibrding us other means to strengthen our faith.
Let none be discouraged in the sight and sense of their own sins ; but let
them come in, and they shall glorify God the more. ' Where sin hath
abounded' in their sense and feeling, there 'grace shall more abound.'
And those that have been good, and have slipped any way, let them con-
sider God's infinite love in Christ. It is not a cistern, but a spring. God's
mercy in Christ, and the blood of Christ, is a 'fountain opened for Judah,'
&c., Zech. xiii. 1 ; that is, it serves not for our first conversion only, but
every day, upon every occasion, when we have made any breach with God,
we may come and wash in that bath, Christ's blood. ' The blood of Christ
purgeth,' 1 John i. 7. It is in the present tense. It runs continually in
the vigour of it. There is a spring of corruption in us ; there is a spring
of mercy in God. There is a spring of Christ's blood, that hath a perfect
efficacy to wash our souls. Therefore, if we have not yet been converted,
and humbled, and cast down for our sins, let us now come in and give
God the glory of his mercy ; and if we have fallen again, consider there is
a fountain opened for ' Judah and Jerusalem to wash in,' and let us
come and renew our repentance and faith at this time.

' Peace on earth.'

The same holy afi'ection in the angels that moved them to wish God to
have his due of glory from the creature, it moves them to wish peace to
men likewise ; to shew this, by the way, that

There can he no true zeal of God's glory but with love to ynankind.

They were not so ravished with the glory of God as to forget poor man
on earth. Oh no ! They have sweet, pure afi"ections to man, a poorer
creature than themselves. Therefore let them that are injurious and
violent in their dispositions, and insolent in their carriage, never talk of
glorifying God, when they despise and wrong men. There are some that
overthrow all peace in the earth for their own glory, but he that seeks
God's glory will procure peace what he can ; for they go both together,
as we see here, ' Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth.'

Now, their end of wishing peace upon earth, it is that men might thereby
glorify God, that God being reconciled, and peace being stablished in men's
consciences, they might glorify God. Hence observe this likewise, that

We cannot glorify God till we have some knowledge of our peace with him
in Christ.

We must have the first act, to cast ourselves upon God's mercy in Christ,
and adhere and cleave to that mercy ; and then we shall feel so much com-
fort as shall make us glorify God, though we may question it in desertion
sometimes. Here the angels, intending that God should have glory of all,
they wish peace on earth, in the consciences of men especially.

The reason is, peace comes from righteousness. Christ is first the
' King of righteousness,' and then ' King of peace ;' righteousness causeth
peace. Now, unless the soul be assured of righteousness in Christ, it
can have no peace. What saith the Virgin Mary ? ' My soul doth mag-
nify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour.' She begins
with magnifying the Lord. But what was the ground ? She rejoiced in

VOL. VI. Y

838 angels' acclamations.

God as a Saviour ; therefore she magnified him. So in the Lord's Prayer
v?e say * Our Father,' which is a word of the covenant of grace, when
the soul conceives of God as a gracious Father, reconciled in Christ. And
then comes * Hallowed be thy name,' insinuating that, till we know in some
measure God to be our Father, we cannot with a gracious spirit say, ' hal-
lowed be thy name.' For can we heartily wish for the manifestation of
the glory of him that we think is our enemy, and him that we have no
interest in his greatness and goodness ? The heart of man will never do
it, therefore God must first speak peace to the soul ; — the angels knew
that well enough ; — and then we are fit to glorify God.

* Peace on earth.'

What is peace ? It is the best thing that man can attain unto, to have
peace with his Maker and Creator. Peace, in general, is a harmony and
an agreement of different things. This peace here you may know what it
is by the contrary, as the apostle saith, Eph. i. 10. The word there is
very significant, Anakephaliosis {avaxKpocXaiue/g). There is a recapitulation
or gathering all to a head in Christ. Out of Christ there is a division, a
separation and a scattering, a breach, that is five-fold.

(1.) First, There is a scattering and a division from God, the fountain of
good, with whom we had communion in our first creation, and his delight
was in his creature. "We lost that blessed communion, and our sins have
separated between God and us, as the prophet saith.

(2.) Then there is a separation heticeen the good angels and its ; for they
being good subjects, take part with their prince, and therefore join against
rebels, as we are. Hence it is, that upon the sight of angels, the very hearts
of good men have sometimes been stricken, considering that there is no very
good terms between us and the angels, till we come to Christ again.

(3.) Then there is a division and scattering between man and man. No
common Spirit of God will keep men together till they be in Christ, as it
is said, God sent an evil spirit, * a spirit of division,' between the men of
Shechem, Judges ix. 23. So, since the fall, there is an ill spirit of division
among men, till the gospel again bring peace ; especially there is no sound
peace between men in the state of nature and others that are God's children,
nor with the ordinances of God. For men apprehend the ordinances of
God as enemies. The word cuts and lanceth him. It is as the sentence
of a judge to condemn him. Therefore he fears and trembles at the power-
ful opening of the word. The ordinance of God speaks no comfort to a
carnal man. He is as Ahab. He never had a word of peace from the
prophet. The word alway speaks ill to him. He is under the law, and it
speaks nothing but terror and curses to him.

(4.) And then there is a division and separation between a man and the
creature, which is ready to be in arms against any man that is in the state
of nature, to take God's quarrel, as we see in the plagues of Egypt and
other examples. If God do but give them leave, they presently make an
end of sinful man ; and they would glory in it too, to serve their Creator.
It is part of their vanity to be subject to wicked men. They have no peace
with the creature.

(5.) And they have no peace with themselves. They speak peace to them-
selves, but, alas ! God speaks none to them. They make a covenant with
death and hell, but death and hell make no covenant with them. So it is
a forced, sleepy peace. It is a dead sleep. The peace they have, it is but
a diversion to other things. They consider not themselves and the war
they are in with God, with themselves, and with the creature ; it is but a

angels' acclamations. 339

truce that tliey take up for a time. When God opens their conscience,
there is a hell in their hearts and souls, that when it is loosed, makes them
to suffer a hell upon earth. They enter into the pains of hell before their
time. So there is ' no peace to the wicked' at all, Isa. hii. 21. There is,
since the fall, a separation between God and man, between angels and man,
between man and the creatures, between man and himself.

Now, Christ at his coming, taking our nature upon him, brings all into
one again. He brings God and man together again, by offering himself a
sacrifice, by making full satisfaction to the justice of God ; and sin, which
is the cause of his displeasure, being taken away, God being gracious and
merciful, his mercy runs amain on us. Sin only separates between God
and us, and that Christ takes away. Therefore he is called by St Paul,
* Christ our peace,' Eph. ii. 14, and ' the Prince of peace,' Heb. vii. 2. He
was qualified to be our peace. He was a friend to both parties, having
married our nature of purpose, that he might in our nature bring God and
us together, as it is 1 Peter iii. 18. His whole work was to ' bring us back
again to God,' from whom we fell at the first.

Then if we be at peace with God, all other peace will follow ; for good
subjects will be at peace with rebels, when they are brought in subjection
to their king, and all join in one obedience. Therefore the angels are
brought to God again by Christ.

And so for men, there is a spirit of union between them. The same
Spirit that knits us to God by faith, knits us one to another by love.

And we have peace with the creature, for when God, who is the Lord of
hosts, is made peaceful to us, he makes all other things peaceable. The
heathen could say, Tranquillus Deus, tranquillat omnia (e), when God is at
peace, he makes all so.

So there is peace in our own hearts. We are assured by the Spirit of
God that he is our Father. He seals it to our conscience by his Spirit,
because the blood of Christ is set on by the Spirit of God, and not by our
own, so that now God and we are brought to one, and angels and we, and
all other things. Therefore now the angels say, ' Peace on earth,' when
Christ was born.

Now, we will shew that this blessed peace, in all the branches of it, is
founded in Christ. Christ is the cause and the foundation of it. For
though these words were spoken at the incarnation of Christ, yet we refer
them to the whole work of his mediatorship, in the state of his abasement
and his state of exaltation. Our peace is wholly founded upon him. For
he was born and became man, and became sin ; that is, a sacrifice for sin
for us ; he became ' a curse for us,' to stablish a peace and to satisfy God's
anger ; and then he rose again, to shew that he had fully satisfied God's
anger, and that peace was fully established. Therefore the Holy Ghost
was sent after the resurrection, as a testimony that God was appeased ; and
now in heaven, he is ever there as a priest, to make intercession for us.
So that Christ is our peace from his incarnation to his death, from thence
to his resurrection, and ascension, and intercession ; all peace with God,
with angels, and with creatures is stabUshed in Christ.

Quest. And why in Christ ?

Ans. Christ is every way fitted for it, for he is the mediator between God
and man ; therefore by office he is fit to make peace between God and man.
He is Emmanuel, himself God and man in one nature ;* therefore his office
is to bring God and man together.

* Qu ' person ' ? — En,

340 angels' acclamations.

(1.) It is fit it should be so in regard of God, who being a ' consuming
fire,' will no peace with the creature without a mediator. It stands not
with his majesty, neither can there ever be peace with us otherwise. Now
Christ is a fit mediator, being a friend to God as the Son of God, and a
friend to us, taking our nature upon him, to be a merciful Redeemer.

(2.) It was also fit, in respect of us, it should be so. Alas ! ' who can
dwell with everlasting burnings ?' Isa. xxxiii. 14. Who can have com-
munion with God, who is a ' consuming fire ?' No. We cannot endure
the sight of an angel. The Israelites could not endure the sight of Moses
when he came from the mount, his face shone so ; and can we endure the
glorious presence of God, ' who dwelleth in light that none can attain
unto' ? 1 Tim. vi. 16. Therefore God derives all good to us in our flesh,
that though we cannot see God directly in himself, yet in the flesh we can
see God incarnate. We may see the sun in the water, though we cannot
directly look on that creature without hazard. It was a comfort to the
patriarchs, that they had Joseph their brother the second man in the king-
dom. So it may be to every Christian, that now we have the second person
in heaven, our brother in our nature. He is the steward of heaven and
earth, to dispense all God's treasures to us. Will not he acknowledge us,
that are * bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh,' when he took our nature
for this end, to be a merciful Redeemer? It is most suitable to our condi-
tion, that Christ should be the foundation of our peace.

3. If ice look to Christ himself, he being God's Son, and the Son of his
love, for him to make us sons, and sons of God's love. Is it not most
agreeable, that he that is the image of God, should again renew the image
of God that we lost ? Jacob's ladder knit heaven and earth together ; so
Christ knits heaven and earth, God and us, together. You know if a ladder
lie upon the ground, it doth no good, or if it be kept above, it serves for
nothing ; so if Christ were only God, or only man, there could be no union
wrought between God and man ; but now, being both, he is a fit mediator
between both. Christ is the foundation of our peace, in the gracious cove-
nant that God hath made with us, in all his offices. For as a prophet, he
proclaims peace. He preached before in the time of Noah. He published
peace as the prophet of his church in himself, when he lived, and by his
ministers when he left the world. And as a priest, he did work our recon-
ciliation, ofi'ering himself a sacrifice. He made a peace between God and
us, and is now in heaven, to make intercession between God and us. And
as a king, he subdues the corruptions of our souls, he pulls down the pride
of our thoughts, to bring the heart into subjection to him by his mighty
power, which indeed requires an almighty power ; also by his kingly office,
he rules, and governs, and subdues all the enemies of his church, without
and within. You see then, without further illustration, that Christ is the
foundation of our peace, by his incarnation, death, resurrection, and
ascension.

This should teach us, first, that whatsoever intercourse we have with
God the Father, we should take Christ, take our Benjamin, our Beloved,
with us. We must not ofier sacrifice without the High Priest. Let us
ofier nothing to God without Christ. There is no intercourse between God
and us, till we be reconciled in Christ, in whom we must offer all our sacri-
fices and endeavours. Therefore, let us not own an absolute God in our
devotions : let us think of God ' reconciled ' in Christ, and at peace with
us, and a father in covenant in Christ ; and then our persons, and prayers,
and all, shall be accepted for the sacrifice of Christ, in whom he smells a

AKGELS' ACCLAMATIONS. 341

sweet savour. As it is said concerning Noah, he offered a sacrifice to
God, ' a sweet smelling sacrifice of rest,' Eph. v. 2. So doth God in Christ.
He is the true mercy-seat in Christ, in looking to whom, God frees us from
the curse of the law. Jerusalem was the glory of the world, and the temple
was the glory of Jerusalem ; but the mercy-seat was the glory of the temple,
because that pointed to Christ, the Mercy-seat, in whom we have intercourse
with God the Father.

We conceive not high enough of the majesty of God, when we go to him
immediately. We must go to him in his Son, whom he hath sent, and
anointed, and set forth, ' as the propitiation for our sins,' Eom. iii. 25,
and ' him hath God the Father sealed,' John vi. 27. He cometh with
authority. Therefore God will be reconciled in Christ. We may bind
God himself, when we offer Christ. He is the foundation of reconciliation
and peace, by God's appointment. He is ' the Prince of peace,' of his own
anointing. Therefore we may go boldly to God, to the throne of grace in
Christ. . . .

And let us often seriously meditate of the sweet favour and reconcihation
stablished now between God and us through Christ. It is the sweetest
meditation.

First, To think in what ill terms we are with God by nature ; and then
think how near we are now to God in Christ, that we are at peace with
him. Methinks the word is too short. There is more meant than is spoken.
At peace with God in Christ : nay, now we are friends ; nay, we are
sons and heirs, fellow-heirs, fellow-kings with Christ ; for God's favours
are complete. As a God he stablisheth not a peace as men do, only to do
them no harm that they are at peace with ; but where he makes a peace,
he confers all that is good : reconciliation, adoption, giving us the liberty
of sons and friends, to go boldly to God as a Father in all our wants. Let
us think more of this, and improve this blessed privilege every day.

' Peace upon earth.'

Quest. Why doth he say, ' peace on earth ' ?

Ans. Because peace was here wrought upon earth by Christ m the days
of his flesh, when he offered himself ' a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour

to his Father.' > /. • j r

Because here in earth we must be partakers of it. We ofttimes deter
to make our peace with God from time to time, and think there will be
peace made iu another world. Oh, beloved, our peace must be made on
earth. ' We must live godlv, and righteously, and soberly in this present
world,' Titus ii. 12. We must enter ' into the kingdom of heaven' here.
Further entrance ' must be ministered here, by growing in grace daily more
and more,' 2 Pet. iii. 18. If heaven be not entered into here, it shall never
be entered afterwards ; for the church is the seminary of the heavenly
paradise. All that are taken to heaven, to be set there for ever, they are
set in the church before they are planted, and grow up there a while, under
the means of salvation. Therefore, labour to have this ' peace on earth,
or else we can never glorify God on earth ; and if we glorify him not on
earth, we shall never do it in heaven.

But to come to some trials, whether we have this peace made or no ;
whether we can say in spirit and truth, there is a peace established between

God and us. • i i iv, 4.

1. For a gi-ound of this, that may lead us to further trial, know tnat

Christ hath reconciled God and us together, not only by obtaining peace,

by way of satisfaction, but by way of application also. Whom he died for

3i2 angels' acclamations.

to obtain * feace^ lie gives a spint of application to improve that peace, to im-
prove ' Christ, the prince of peace,' as their own. For there is a mutual
commerce between God and man, who is an understanding creature ; and
there is nothing that God doth for man, if we look to the general and head
of benefits, but there is somewhat in man wrought by the Spirit to answer
it again. God is reconciled to man in Christ. Man must be reconciled to
God in Christ ; in 2 Cor. v. 19, ' God was in Christ, reconciling the world.'
When he was on the cross, God was there reconciled in Christ. Is that
all ? No. God by us entreats you to be reconciled to God. A strange
condescending, that God should entreat us to be good to our own souls by
his ministers. ' We entreat you to be reconciled,' 2 Cor. v. 20 ; that is, to
accept of the reconciliation wrought by Christ, and to lay aside all weapons
of rebellion, whereby you fought against God in the course of your vanity.
We beseech you to be reconciled, and to ' repent, because the kingdom of
God is at hand,' Mat. iii. 2. So that except there be reconciliation wrought
by a spirit of application on man's part, it is not sufficient that God is
reconciled in Christ, because God will alway have a reflex act from man.
As he chooseth man, so man by grace chooseth him. As he loves and
delights in man, so he will have man, by a spirit of sweetness, delight in
him again above all the world. ' Whom have I in heaven but thee ?'
Ps. Ixxiii. 25. So there is somewhat wrought by the Spirit to God again.
Why should God be at good terms with us, but to enjoy the friendship of
his poor creature ? Unless, therefore, there be a gracious disposition
wrought in the creature, to look back, to love and delight in God, as God
doth in him, there is no actual reconciliation. There must be a forcible
application by the Spirit. If God should not give a spirit of applicatiop,
as well as Christ obtain heaven for us, those that are in the covenant of
grace should notlje stablished ; but God by this means brings them so near,
that he, loving them, loves them for ever, and they have an everlasting
covenant and an everlasting vmion. The carnal heart of man. is a poison-
ful thing, and hates God naturally. It wishes that there were no God to
judge him. He may think well of God for the good things of this life, but
when he thinks of God as a judge to cast him into hell, he wisheth with
all his heart. Oh that there were no God ! that I might have my full of the
pleasures of sin. Now the soul when it is at peace with God, when God by
his Spirit speaks to the soul, and saith, ' I am thy salvation,' Ps, xxxv. 3,
* Thy sins are forgiven thee,' Mat. ix. 2 ; and as Christ to the good thief on
the cross, ' This day shalt thou be with me in paradise,' Luke xxiii. 43 ;
when he whispers to the soul, ' Thou art mine, and I am thine,' Cant. ii. 16 ;
then the soul becomes sweet and peaceable to God again, and studies to
advance the glory of God's mercy by all means, and to advance the gospel
of peace. It becomes friendly to God.

To come to some more familiar evidences, whether we be at peace with
God, and whether we have the comfort of this peace, established by Christ,
or no.

2. Those that are reconciled one to another have common friends and
common enemies. If therefore there be * peace ' between God and us, it is
60 with us. We love all where we see any evidence of God's love. We
love Christians as Christians. And whom God loves not, we love not ;
what God hates we hate in ourselves and others. We hate corruptions in
ourselves and others, though we love their persons.

3. Another evidence of ' peace ' made in Christ between God and us, is
a boldness of spirit and acquaintance with God. ' Acquaint thyself with

ANGELS* ACCLAMATIONS. S43

God, and be at peace with him,' Job xxii. 21 . A Christian being at ' peace '
with God in Christ Jesus, he goes boldly to the throne of grace in all his
necessities, as a poor child goes boldly to his father, and moves the bowels
of his father by his petitions. When two kingdoms are at ' peace, there
is trading set up afresh again. So when God is at ' peace ; with the soul,
there is a heavenly intercourse and trading set up. There is no man that
is at ' peace ' with God, but he calls upon God in his person, m his family.
He sets up the worship of God there. He labours to bring all to God that
he can. He thinks it the most gainful trade in the world. In the want ot
grace and spiritual comfort he goes to the fountain of grace, and improves
that blessed prerogative we have by peace in Christ. Those that have not
the Spirit of God to improve it in communion and tradmg with God, it is
a sign there is no peace. Strangeness shews that there is no peace. Alas,
how strangely do many walk towards God, that from Sunday to Sunday
scarce hft up their hearts to heaven for a blessing, but walk in the strength
of their own mother-wit, and support themselves with the success ol second
causes, and bless themselves ; they are strangers from the ' God of peace.
Let us take notice of this, and account it a gi-eat prerogative, that we may go
to God with boldness, that it is not now as it was in paradise. There is no
angel with a sword to shut us from heaven. But now there is an entrance
to the throne of grace. We may go boldly in the name of Christ, to otter
ourselves and all our endeavours.

4. A Christian that hath made his * peace ' with God, will never allow him-
self in any sin against conscience, because he knows sm is odious in itselt,
loathsome to God, and hurtful to his soul ; therefore he will not be m league
with any sinful, unjust course. What ! to be in league with God and to
be at ' peace ' with that that God hates more than the devil himself ! He
hates sin more than the devil, for he hates him for sin. Therefore a man
that allows himself in known sins, there can be no peace between God and
him, as he saith, ' Why do you talk of peace, as long as the witchcrafts and
whoredoms of Jezebel remain ?' 2 Kings ix. 22. A man that hves m sms
against conscience, that is an open swearer, an unjust person, that cares not
by what means he advanceth himself, what doth he talk of peace with God
when he is in league with God's enemy ? Therefore, though such men,— out
of ' the hardness of their hearts, which are harder than the nether miUstone,
Job xh. 24, and God seals them up under a hard heart to damnation,
except some terrible judgment awake them,— force a peace upon themselves,
they ought to speak none, and they shall find it to their cost ere long
Therefore let us examine our own hearts how we stand affected to any smlul
course. There may be infirmities and weaknesses hang upon the best that
are besides* their purposes and resolutions, but for a man resolvedly to
set himself in an ill way, how can he be at peace with God and with Satan
at the same time ? Let us take notice of these things, and not daubf with
our own consciences. , ,, . , . ,

5. Again, Where there is a true peace established, there is a high esteem
of the word of peace, the gospel of reconciliation, as St Paul calls it, Z Cor
V 18, ' He hath committed to us the word of reconciliation. ihose tliat
find this peace, there is stirred up by the Spirit in their breasts^ a high
esteem of the ordinance of God, as being the word of their ' peace. _ How
come we to have peace between God and us ? Is it not by opening the
riches of God's love in Christ in the Scriptures? Therefore, saith the
Scripture, * blessed are the feet of them that bring glad tidmgs, isa. Jii. /.
« That is, ' beside.'— G. t Cf. Ezckiel xxii. 28.—

844

ANGELS ACCLAMATIONS.

The meanest part of their body, their feet, are blessed. Therefore those
that have despicable conceits of the ministry of the word, and place their
happiness in depraving* the labour and pains of that office and calling, it is a
sign that they have profane hearts ; for whosoever hath had any grace wrought
by the word of reconciliation and of peace, they will highly esteem it, and
respect them for their office sake. It cannot be otherwise,

6, Lastly, Those that have found peace are peaceable. It is universally
true God doth make an impression of the same disposition in us to others.
We apprehending God in Christ to be peaceable to us, we are peaceable to
others. Therefore, in Isa, xi, 6, seq., the knowledge of God in Christ, it
alters and changeth men's dispositions. It makes wolves and lions to be
of a milder disposition and temper. Harsh, proud, sturdy dispositions,
they never felt * peace' and mercy themselves ; therefore they are not
ready to shew it to others. In the nature of the thing itself it is impos-
sible for the soul to apprehend peace in the love of God, and not to have
the disposition wrought upon to shew what it haf,h felt. Let us think of
these and such like evidences daily, to keep our hearts from speaking false
* peace.' The greatest danger in the world, in this regard, is in the
church ; for people under the gospel speak false ' peace ' to themselves.
There is a spirit of delusion that carries them along to their death, and
deceives them also in death ; and so they are in hell before they be aware,
and then too late. They see that they were never in good terms with God
in all their life, because they looked on Christ making peace, without any
consideration of the spirit of application.

There must be a sprinkling of the blood of Christ on our souls to make
it our own : * We are come to the blood of sprinkling,' Heb. xii. 24. It
is not the blood of Christ that makes our peace only as blood ; but as it is
sprinkled by the hand of faith, that is as the hyssop that sprinkled the blood
of the sacrifice upon the people. We must not think to have any good by
the blood of Christ, when we want the blood of sprinkling, that is, this
particular faith : ' Christ loved me, and hath chosen me,' Gal. ii. 20 ; and
I choose him, and love him again ; and so go with boldness to God as a
Father. Unless there be this passage of the soul, between God and us,
let us not talk of peace. For if we might have good by Christ, without a
spirit of application, and if there were not a necessity of sprinkling the
blood of Christ upon our souls by faith, all the world should be saved.

In the next place, to give a few directions to maintain this peace actually
and continually every day.

1, To walk with God, and to keep our daily peace with God, it requires
a great deal of watchfulness over our thoughts, — for he is a Spirit, over our
words and actions. Watchfulness is the preserver of peace. Where there is a
great distance between two that are at peace, it is not kept without acknow-
ledgment of that distance, and without watchfulness. It is not here as it is
in a peace that is between two kings that are co-ordinate with one another ;
but it is a peace between the King of heaven and rebels that are taken
to be subjects ; therefore we must walk in humble, low terms. ' Humble
thyself, and walk with thy God,' 1 Pet. v. G. We must watch over our
carriage, that we do not ' grieve the Spirit of God ;' for then, however
the first peace established in conversion should be never taken away, yet
God interdicts our comfort. We cannot daily enjoy our daily peace
without watchfulness. But God suffers our knowledge, and our former
illumination, to lash our conscience, and to be more miserable in our
* That is, ' undervaluing.' — G.

ANGELS ACCLAMATIONS.

345

inward man, than a carnal man that never had sight of goodness. Oh
the misery of a man that is fallen into ill terms with God, that had peace
before ! Of all men such a man hath most horror till he have made his
peace again. Watchfulness will prevent this.

2. And because it is a difficult thing to maintain terms of peace with
God, in regard of our indisposition, we fall into breaches with God daily ;
therefore ice should often reneiv our covenants and 2nirposes evenj day.

And if we have fallen into any sin, let us make use of our great peace-
maker, Christ, who is in heaven to make peace between God and us. Let
us desire God, for his sake, to be reconciled unto us, ' for God is, in Christ,
reconciling us unto him,' 2 Cor. v. 19, still. The fruit of Christ's death
remains still. Let us desire him to testify it unto us by his Holy Spirit.

3. And take that direction of the apostle, in Philip, iv. 6, when we
find any trouble in the world, not to trouble ourselves over much. ' In
nothing be careful,' &c. No. Shall we cast away all care ? _ Cast your
care upon God ; let your requests be made known to God with thanks-
giving ; let your prayers be made to God ; and let him have his tribute of
thanksgiving for what you have received already. What then ? ' The
peace of God, that passeth all understanding, shall keep and preserve your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus,' Philip, iv. 7. Perhaps we shall not
have what we pray for, when we have made our requests known to God.
If we have not that we pray for presently, yet we shall have the ' peace of
God, that passeth all understanding,' [which] shall ' keep our hearts and
minds.' Therefore, when any thing troubles us, let us consider there is
peace made between God and us, and put up our requests in the name of
Christ, and we shall find that peace that passeth understanding.

4. Again, If we would maintain this peace, let us he alivay doing some-
what that is good and pleasing to God. In the same chapter, Philip, iv. 8,
' Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are pure,' &c., ' think of these things ;' and what
then ? ' The God of peace shall be with you.' The peace of God and the
God of peace shall be with you. There must be a thinking of whatsoever
is good. The thoughts must be exercised that way, and there must be a
practice of what we think of. This is one means to maintain this peace
with God. The very heathen had this reward of God, I mean in this life,
that when they did good to their country, and one to another, they had
content of conscience, they had a peace suitable. For in this world there
is a suitable pleasure of conscience and contentment upon everything that
is good. God rewards it in this world. For as the heat followeth the
fire alway— naturally it cannot be without heat— so the thinking and prac-
tising of that which "is good, especially when it is joined with some opposi-
tion of corrupt nature, when the light of nature is above the corruption of
nature. If a man be a pagan, he shall have this reward in this world, a
kind of inward peace ; for we see how comfortably they speak sometimes
upon some notable performance for their country (/). Now, the God of
peace will be with us much more when we have laid the foundation of our
peace aright, in the mercy of God in Christ, besides what is reserved,
heaven and happiness. In this world we shall find the peace of God in
the doing that which is good.

As for those that live in the church, and are not yet in the state of grace,
that have lived wicked lives, let them consider that yet the day of grace
continues, as yet the sceptre of mercy is held forth in the ministry ; there
is a day of jubilee for them to return from their former captivity. Let

346 angels' acclamations,

them not abuse the patience of God, and think to do it afterward ; for that
is the way to harden the heart more and more. And this Scripture puts
an elFcctual argument into the hearts of all that are in ill terms with God,
that have not made their peace, or that have had peace and have broken
it. Here is an effectual way of pleading with God. * Gloiy to God on
high,' &c. If the soul can say, I consider my folly and madness in running
into sin ; thou mightest justly damn me if thou wouldst ; it is thy mercy I
am not sent to hell. Oh, but thou shalt have the greater glory ! If I find
mercy therefore that I may say, ' Glory to God on high,' let me find peace
on earth ; speak peace by thy Spirit to my soul ; say, ' I am thy salva-
tion.' This was the end of thy sending of Christ, the end of creation, the
end of providence, all to bring thee glory. Thou mightest have the glory
of thy justice to damn me. Oh, but it Avill be the glory of thy mercy to
save me ; that as my sins have abounded, so thy glory shall more abound.
Lord, extend the bowels of thy mercy. "Will not the Lord be jealous
'of his glory' when you allege it? Certainly he will. You see the
angels here cry, ' Glory to God on high, peace on earth.' The way to
bring ' peace' is to allege the glory of God's mercy in Christ. It is a pre-
vailing way.

Now, to stir us up more and more to search the grounds of our peace, I
beseech you, let us,

1. Consider the fearful estate of a man that hath not made his peace icith
God. However Christ have died, that will not serve the turn. But if
Christ be food, if he be not eaten ; if he be a garment, and not be put on ;
if Christ be a foundation, if we do not build on him, what benefit is it to
us ? Therefore those that have not been brought by the Spirit of God to
communion with Christ, alas ! they are under the wrath of God, however
God doth use them ; as princes do traitors in the Tower, he gives them
the liberty of the prison, yet the sentence of death is not revoked. All
the delights of a prisoner in the Tower doth not content him ; he knows he
is in ill terms with his prince. So, till we have made our peace with
God, by hearty confession of our sins, by shaming of ourselves, by a parti-
cular faith, believing the forgiveness of our sins, and a resolution against
all sin for the time to come, alas ! we have not sued out our pardon ; all
our delights are but as those of a prisoner in the Tower. Therefore, ask
thy soul. Hast thou sued out thy pardon ? Is there reconciliation wrought
between God and thee, and accounts made even ? ' If we confess and for-
sake our sins, we shall find mercy,' 1 Kings viii. 35 and 1 John i. 9. It
is the word of the God of heaven, who is truth itself. He hath pawned
his fidelity and truth on it, to forgive us, if we confess. He is content to
be thought unjust and unfaithful if he do not forgive, if we ingenuously,
•without all guile of spirit, lay open our sins, and take shame to ourselves.

2. If we do not make our peace with God, what a case are we in ! God
himself ere long will appear our enemy. Christ, xvhom ive think ivill save
us, will be our judge, and a terrible judge. The Lamb will be angry.
'Who shall cover us from the wrath of the Lamb?' Rev. ii. 12. We
think of Christ as an innocent, meek lamb only, that will not be angrj'.
The rebellious kings and potentates, that fight against Christ and his
church, they think to trample on Christ and his gospel ; but the time will
come when they shall ' desire the mountains to cover them,' Eev. vi. 16 ;
and ' if his wrath be kindled, who shall abide it ?' Ps. ii. 12. He speaks
there of Christ : ' Happy are they that trust in him.'

3. As for the Holy Ghost, how can they look for comfort from him ?

angels' acclamations. 847

They have grieved him/ therefore he will grieve their conscience. The
Holy Ghost, as he is the God of all comfort and consolation, so he is the
ground of all terror to wicked men ; when he hath knocked at their hearts,
by the ministry of his word, to open and to let him in, but they would not.

4. And the angels are ready executioners of God's vengeance upon any
occasion ; and others, creatures, wait but for a command from God to
execute his wrath upon sinners. The heavens are ready to rain upon,
them as in the flood, and the earth is ready to swallow them as it did
Korah ; jthe beasts that carry us, the creatures we use,'^wait for a command
from God to destroy us ; our meat to choke us, the air to infect us, the
water to drown us. They are all ready to serve the Lord of hosts against
his enemies ; as he saith, Isa. i. 24, ' Ah, I will be avenged on mine
ememies.' Indeed, here God shews his patience ; and our long life, that
we think a great favour, < it is a treasuring up of wrath against the day of
wrath,' Rom. ii. 5. And then, when God's wrath comes at the day of
judgment, when God hath forsaken sinful men, when God the judge of all
hath said, 'Depart, ye cursed,' Mat. xxv. 41, no creature shall minister
them the least comfort. The sun shall shine upon them no more ; the
earth shall bear them no longer; as we see Dives {g), he had not a drop
of water to comfort him in those flames, Luke xvi. 24. Therefore, if we
be not at peace with the Lord of hosts, every creature is ready to be in
arms against us.

5. As for the devils, they will be ready to be tormentors. They that are
incentives to sin will be tormentors for sin afterwards,

6. As for the church, what comfort can a wicked man look for from the
church, whom he hath despised, and whose ministry he hath rejected ?

7. And for the damned sjnrits, they are all in that cursed condition with
himself. Therefore, ' where shall the ungodly appear ? ' 1 Pet. iv. 18.
Ere long whence shall he hope for comfort ? Neither from God, nor
angels, nor devils, nor wicked men, nor good men. None of them all will
yield him a dram of comfort.

Let us not therefore delude ourselves, hut get into Christ, get into the
ark in time, that when anj^ public calamity shall come, we may be safe in
Christ. If we be at peace with God, by repentance of sins, and by faith
in Christ, everything will minister thoughts of comfort to us. We cannot
think of God, but as our Father ; of Christ as our Redeemer and recon-
ciler, that hath brought God and us together. The Holy Ghost takes upon
him the term of a Comforter for such. Angels, they are ministering spirits.
As for the church itself, God's people, they all have a common stock of
prayers for us. Every one that saith, ' Our Father,' thinks of us; and all
other things, they are at peace with us, as Job saith, ' The stones in the
street,' Job v. 23 ; nay, the stone in a man's body, the terrible pangs
that comes from that disease, they have a blessing upon them. In the
greatest extremities, a soul that is at peace with God, however God do not
deliver him from the trouble, yet he delivers and supports him in the
trouble ; and as the troubles increase, so his comforts increase ; and the
very troubles are peace with him. ' All work for the best to them that
love God,' Rom. viii. 28. And in the greatest confusions and tumults of
states, yet ' the righteous is afraid of no ill tidings,' Ps. cxii. 7, because
his heart is fixed upon God's love in Christ. The wicked, when war and
desolation, and signs of God's anger appear from heaven, they ' shake as
the trees of the forest,' as a wicked Ahaz, Isa. vii. 2 ; as a Belshazzar,
when there is but a fear of trouble. How did he know that the hand-

S48 angels' acclamations.

writing was against him ? It was nothing but this naughty conscience.
He knew not what it was till it was expounded. So when any troubles
comes upon wicked men, their consciences upbraid them with their former
life. Their knees knock together, and they grow pale as Belshazzar. Oh
the misery of a man that hath not made his peace with God, in the evil day,
and the comfort of a man that hath ! There is the difference between
godly and ungodly man. Consider them in calamities. The one is at
peace with God, in the midst of all calamities and troubles; nay, as I said,
even troubles themselves are peaceable to him.

Yea, when death comes, which is the upshot of all, the sting of it is
taken away, and it is for our greatest good. He that hath made his peace
with God, he can say, with old Simeon, ' Lord, now let thy servant depart
in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,' Luke ii. 30. Mine eyes
have seen Christ with the eye of faith. He is willing to yield his soul to
God, because he is at peace with God. Their graves are their beds, and
their souls rest with God. They die in peace, and commend their souls
to God, ' as to a faithful Creator,' 1 Peter iv. 19, with a great deal of con-
fidence : as Saint Paul saith, * I have fought the good fight, I have kept
the faith, I have run my race ; henceforth is reserved for me a crown of
righteousness ; and not for me only, but for all those that love the blessed
and glorious appearing of Christ.' Oh the comfort of a gracious soul in
the hour of death, that hath made its peace with God, Job xviii. 14,
when * the king of fears,' death, shall look with a ghastly, terrible look upon
men that have not made their peace. But to the other it is the end of
misery, the inlet to eternal happiness. * Blessed are those that die in the
Lord,' in the peace of the Lord ; ' they rest from their labours,' from the
labour of sin, of callings, of afflictions. Rev. xiv. 13. There is no resting till
then. Saint Paul himself was troubled with the remainders of sin, with afflic-
tions and troubles of his calling; but blessed are they that die in the peace of
God in Christ. They rest from their labours. And after death, what
comfort are those in that have made their peace with God in Christ !
Then their Saviour is to be their Judge. He that makes intercession for
them in heaven will be their Judge ; and will the head give sentence against
the members, the husband against the wife and spouse ? Oh no ! There-
fore the godly have comfortable and sweet thoughts of those blessed times,
that astonisheth wicked men. They have a glorious expectation of the
times to come. They cannot think of death and judgment, when their
souls are in a good frame, without much comfort. ' Lift up your heads,
for your redemption draws near,' Luke xxi. 28. Therefore let us not con-
ceive slightly of this peace. It is not a freedom from petty ills, and an
advancement to a little good ; but it is a freedom from ills that are above
nature ; from the wrath of God, before which no creature can stand ; no,
not the angels themselves ; from hell and damnation ; the curse of God ;
from the kingdom of Satan. It is a freedom from that condition that all
the powers of the world shall tremble at. How can they stand before the
anger of God ? And it is an advancement to the greatest good ; a free-
dom from bondage ; an advancement to sonship. Therefore let us have
high thoughts of this peace ; as the angels had, when they sang, ' Glory to
God on high, on earth peace.'

• ' Good will towards men.'

Divers copies have it otherwise, * On earth peace to men of good will.'
Some have it, ' Good will towards men,' The sense is not much diffe-

angels' acclamations. 349

rent.* Pesce on earth, ' To men of God's good will, of God's good pleasure.*
That God hath a pleasure to save, or * good will towards men,' of God's
good pleasure ; * Peace on earth,' to men of God's good will and pleasure;
or God's good pleasure towards men.

' Good will towards men.'

This is the spring and root of all. The angels begin with ' Glory to God,'
and then they come to ' peace among men,' because without peace and
reconciliation with God the heart of man cannot be enlarged to glorify God.
The angels would have men glorify God as well as themselves. Therefore
they desire peace on earth, that God may be glorified in heaven. Now
there is no peace but issues from grace. Grace is God's free good will and
pleasure. Therefore the angels say, ' Good will towards men.'

The holy apostles, they could not have better teachers for their salutations
in their epistles than to learn of the angels ; as you have Saint Paul's pre-
faces, the same with this evangelical celebration and gratulation here to men,
'Grace, mercy, and peace,' so here, 'Peace on earth, good will towards men.'
Only the apostles they begin, ' grace and peace ; ' and here the angels,
' peace and grace,' But the meaning of the angels and apostles is all one;
for the angels, when they wish ' peace on earth,' they go to the spring of
it, ' good will towards men.' The apostles, they begin with grace, the
spring, and then go to peace after.

' Good will towards men.'

The words need not further to be explicated. There is no great difficulty
in them. The points considerable are these.

1. God now hath a gracious good will towards men.

2. This good will is the foundation of all good.

3. And this is founded upon Christ.

The first of these I will but touch, because it doth but make way to the
other.

1. God shews now good pleasure towards men.

The love that God bears towards man hath divers terms, from divers
relations. As it is a propension in him to do good, so it is love. As
it is his free, so it is his good, pleasure or grace. As it is to persons in
misery, it is mercy. The fountain of all is love. But as the object is
diversely considered, so the terms be divers. Good pleasure and grace
imply freedom in the party loving, and mercy implies misery in the party
loved.

Now this free good will and grace, it is towards men, towards mankind.
He saith not, towards angels. It is more towards men, than even to good
angels, in some sort. For now man is taken to be the spouse of Christ.
Good angels are not so. Neither is it good will to evil angels ; for their
state is determined. There is no altering of their condition. Therefore
God is called Philanthropos, not PhUangelos ; and the Scripture calls this
Philanthroina, the love that God hath shewed to men in Christ.f There-
fore we should have thoughts of God as gracious, loving our nature more
than the angelical nature in some respects.

And learn this for imitation, to love mankind. God loved mankind; and
surely there is none that is born of God, but he loves the nature of man,
wheresoever he finds it. He will not stand altogether, whether it be good
or bad, &c. But because we are now in the way, and our state is not
determined, and because God loves the nature of man, therefore every

* Cf. note a. — G. f That is, 'pt'kav&^uTria, — G.

850 angels' acclamations.

man that hath the Spirit of God loves mankind. He will labour to gain
Turks, or Indians, &c., if he can, because he loves the very nature of man.
But I pass from this point to the second.

2. This hdoKia, 'good will of God' to restore lapsed man by the sending
of his Son, is the ground of all good to man, and hath no ground but itself.
God's grace and love to the creature is altogether independent in regard
of the creature. God fetcheth not reasons of his love from the creature,
but from his own bowels. What can he foresee in ' persons that were
dead' ? nay, in persons that were in a contrary disposition to goodness?
There is nothing but enmity in our nature to supernatural goodness. Can
God foresee grounds of love in enmity ?

As Moses tells the people of Israel in divers places, Dent. vii. 8, ' that
it was not for any foresight of good in them,' they were the stubbornest
people under heaven, therefore God, to shew his free love, he chose a
stubborn people, and singled them out to be the object of his mercy. So
God'ofttimes takes the unlikeliest men in the world, and passeth by many,
otherwise of sweet natures. So we see, even the means themselves, they
are of God's free mercy and love.

We have whatsoever we have by virtue of the covenant ; for what could
we look for from God but in covenant, wherein he hath bound himself ?
Now, since the fall, this covenant is called the covenant of grace ; that
now, * if we believe in Christ, we shall not perish, but have life and
salvation,' John iii. 15. In all the parts of it, it is of God's free grace
and good pleasure. What is the foundation of the covenant ? Christ.
Christ is of free grace. * God so loved the world, that he gave his only
Son,' verse 16. There is nothing freer than gift. Christ is a gift,"the
greatest gift. He came freely from God; he 'gave him to death for us all,'
Eom. viii. 32.

And then whatsoever good thing we have in Christ, it comes freely too.
He that gave Christ freely, shall he not ' with him give us all things too ? '
Eom. viii. 32.

Then the very grace to keep the covenant, repentance and faith, they are
the gift of God. * I will take away your stony heart, and give you new
hearts, and cause you to walk in my statutes ; I will circumcise your
hearts,' Exek. xi. 19. So the grace to walk in the covenant of grace, it
comes from God. God doth his part and ours too, to shew not only that
the covenant of grace is a covenant of wondrous love, to give us grace here
and glory hereafter, but that the foundation is of grace, and the perform-
ance on our part is of grace. Nay, it is of grace that he would enter into
covenant at all. He humbled himself wondrously to vouchsafe to enter
into covenant. It was humiliation on God's part, and exaltation to us.
Therefore, as it is in Zechariah, we may cry, ' Grace, grace.' There is
nothing but grace and free love in the whole carriage of our salvation.

If whatsoever good come to man be merely from God's good will, let us
empty ourselves, and give him the glory of all. It is easily spoken and
heard, but not so easily done. For man naturally is proud, and for flesh
and blood to be brought to go out of itself and acknowledge nothing in
itself, to give the glory of all goodness and happiness to God's free grace
and goodness, it is hard to bring proud nature to do this. But we must
beg grace of God to work our hearts to this more and more, to empty
ourselves of ourselves, and to give God the glory of all. But,

I come to the last point, because I would end this text at this time.

3. This free love and grace of God is only in Christ.

angels' acclamations. 351

' Therefore the angels pronounce it now at the birth of Christ, ' eood
will to men.' All these agree very well : Christ's free grace, and faith,
i^or what_ we have by grace, we have only by Christ ; because he hath
given satisfaction to God's justice, that so grace may [be conveyed and
derived unto us without prejudice to any other attribute in God • and
then the embracing power and grace in us is faith. So these three a^rree.

1 say, whatsoever we have from God's free love now, we have it in Christ
The free love of God is grounded in Christ. We in ourselves, especially
considered in the corrupt mass, cannot be the object of God's love. God
cannot look upon us, but in him, the best beloved, first. Therefore all is
in Christ m the carriage of it. We are elected in Christ, called in Christ,
justified by Christ, sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, glorified in Christ
'We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ,'
Eph. 1. 3. I This is my beloved Son; I am well pleased in him,' Mat.
an. 17. It IS the same word there, ivdoxnaoi,, ' in whom I delio-ht ' Isa
xhi. 1, out of which the Father takes his speech, 'This is the Son^I deh^ht
m. Now, all God's delight is first fixed in his Son and in us, because we
must have communion with the Son. So the first object of God's free love
is Christ, and then he looks upon us in him.

The Trinity have a wondrous complacency in looking upon mankind
Now in Christ God loves us, as redeemed by Christ ; Christ loves us as
elected by the Father, and given by the Father's choice to him to redeem.
The Holy Ghost hath a special liking to us, as seeing the love of the
Father m choosing us, and of the Son in redeeming us. And surely if we
would see likewise those sweet interviews of God the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, it should be our main delight too, to see how God hath chosen
us and given us to Christ to save ; how Christ hath redeemed us, from this
very respect, that the Father hath chosen us and given us to him, as it is
in John xvii. 6, ' Thine they were, thou gavest them me ;' and how the
Holy Ghost is a Spirit of communion — the ' communion of the Holy Ghost.'

2 Cor. xiii. 14 — that hath communion with the Father and the Son, and
issues and proceeds from them both ; how he witnesseth this love to our
souls, and applies it to us. The Holy Ghost applies all. The Father
decreed and ordained all. The Son works and dispenseth all. The con-
sideration of the point is wondrous comfortable.

Whatsoever good will the Father hath to us, it is as we are in Christ.

Quest. And why in Christ ?

Ans. Because Christ is the first thing that God can love. He is ' the
only begotten Son of God.' Whosoever is loved to glory in a spiritual
order, is loved in the first beloved. Christ is loved of God as the character
of his own image. The Son represents the Father. He is loved of God
as mediator by office. So God looks upon us in Christ as the ' Son of his
love.' Sp he is called by Saint Paul, Col. i. 13.

Then if we consider ourselves, this must be so. Alas ! we are not
objects of God's love in ourselves, nor cannot be ; but in some other that
is loved first. For what are we ? And what is the glory to which God
loves us ? To love such as we to such glory, and to free us from such
misery due, it must be by another foundation than ourselves. Therefore
God's good pleasure is founded upon his Son Christ. This is a clear point.
The Scripture beats much upon it. He is our elder brother, and we must
be conformed to him.

Use. To make some use of it.

First of all, then, we see here that all that are not in Christ lie open to

352 angels' acclamations.

the vengeance and wrath of God. His good will towards men is only in
Christ.

Again, If all God's good will and pleasure he in Christ, as our high priest,
without whom we can offer no sacrifice, as we know whatsoever was not
offered hy the high priest it was abominable, therefore we should look to
God in Christ, love God in Christ, perform service to God in Christ, pray
to God in Christ, give thanks to God in Christ, desire God in Christ to
make all things acceptable for Christ's sake, because it is in Christ that
God hath any good will and pleasure to us.

It is a point of marvellous comfort, that God's love and good pleasure is
so well founded, as in Christ. He loves Christ eternally, and sweetly, and
strongly. Is not God's love to us the same ? Doth he not love us with
the same love that he loves his Son ? He loves his mystical body with
one love, that is Christ, head and members : John xvii. 23, ' That the
love thou bearest to me may be in them.' What a sweet comfort is this !
God loves Christ and me with one love. He loves me strongly, and
sweetly, and constantly, as he doth his own Son. His love to me is
eternal, because the foundation of it is eternal. It is founded upon Christ.
The" love of a prince, if it be founded on a favourite he loves dearly, must
needs be firm and strong. Now God's love to Christ is ardent, and strong,
and sweet, as possibly can be conceived. Therefore it is so to us, his good
will to us being founded on Christ.

Why should a believer fear that God will cast him away ? He will as
soon leave his love to his own Son, as to us, if we continue members of his
Son. It is an undefeasible love. It is a point of wondrous comfort.
' What shall separate us,' saith the apostle, Eom. viii. 35, ' from the love
of God founded in Christ ? neither things present, nor things to come, nor
life, nor death, nor anything.' Many things may sever the soul and body,
but there is nothing in the world but sin, that shall sever either soul or
body from the love of God in Christ, because both body and soul are mem-
bers of Christ. Therefore let us treasure it up as a point wondrous com-
fortable.

To come to an use of trial, how shall we know whether God's good will
be to us in Christ or no ? How shall I know that he loves my person, that
I am in the state of grace and love with him ?

The Holy Ghost must ascertain this. For as the work of salvation was
so great, that only God could satisfy God, so the doubts of man's heart,
and the guilt of his conscience when it is upon him, and the fear of God's
wrath upon just guilt, is such that God must assure him that God is recon-
ciled to him. God the Son must reconcile God the Father, and God the
Holy Ghost must seal and ascertain this to the soul. The soul will never
be quiet, before it see and know in particular God reconciled in Christ.
The Spirit that is God, that is above conscience, must seal it to the soul,
being above conscience. He can set down and quiet our conscience. Now
this Spirit that worketh this in us, and assures us of God's good pleasure,
it alters and changeth our dispositions, that we shall have a good pleasure
in God, for there is a mutual good pleasure. God hath a good pleasure in
us as his, and we have a good pleasure in God wrought by the Spirit. The
Spirit not only witnesseth, but worketh this sweet and gracious disposition
to God. God delights in us, and we in God. God delights in the church
above all things. The church is his wife and spouse, his body, his friends,
his children, and those that have the Spirit of God delight in them too.
Ps. xvi. 3, ' All my delight is in the excellent ;' and Prov. viii. 31, 'My

ANGKLS' ACCLAMATIONS. 353

delight is in the sons of men,' saith Christ ; which he shewed by taking the
base nature of man upon him. So all that have the Spirit of Christ delight
in the church and people of God : * All my delight is in the saints on earth,'
Hosea ii. God saith his delight is in his church. So all that have the
Spirit of God, they delight in the people of God.

God delights in obedience more than sacrifice. God's people, that he
delights in, they yield their bodies and souls a sacrifice to God : Rom.
xii. 1, * They will seek out what is well-pleasing and acceptable to God.'
God accepts them in Christ, and he is acceptable to them in Christ Jesus,
and they seek out what pleaseth him and is acceptable to him. As the
sons of Isaac sought out what might please their old father, what he could
relish, so God's children seek out what duties God relisheth best. Thanks-
giving is a sacrifice ' with which God is well pleased.' Is it so ? Then
they will seek out that that may please him. God by his Spirit will work
in them a disposition to please him in all things. Therefore the people of
God are said to be a voluntary, free people, ' zealous of good works,' Titus
ii. 14, being set at liberty. The Spirit infusing and conveying the love and
good pleasure of God in Christ to them, it sets their wills at liberty, to
devise to please God in all things. They have, as David prays, Ps. H. 12,
' a free Spirit.' As God, not out of any respect from us, but freely from
his own bowels loved us, and gave Christ to us, and delighted in us, so
the soul freely, without any base respects, loves God again. Those, there-
fore, that do duties for base aims, and forced, as fire out of a flint, not as
water out of a spring, that duty comes not naturally and sweetly from
them, God hath no pleasure in them, because they have none in God ;
but the good they do is extorted and drawn from them.

Let us try ourselves therefore. If we have tasted God's good will
towards us, 7ve iciU hare a good pleasnre to him ofjain. Whatsoever is
God's pleasure shall be our pleasure ; what pleaseth him shall please us.
If it please him to exercise us with crosses, and afflictions, and losses,
what pleaseth God shall please me ; for when he hath once loved me freely
in Christ, every thing that comes from him tastes of that free love. If he
correct me, it is out of free love and mercy. All the ways of God ' are
mercy and truth.' His way of correction and sharp dealing, it is a way of
love and free mercy. Therefore, if it please him, it shall please me ; my
will shall be his will.

Again, If we find the free love of God to us in Christ, it will quicken m
to all duties, and strengthen us in all conditions. But these evidences shall
suffice. Let us search our hearts how we stand affected to God, and to the
best things. We delight in them, if God delight in us.

And if we do not find ourselves yet to be the people of God's delight,
towards whom God hath thoughts of love, as the prophet speaks, Jer.
xxix. 11, what shall we do ?

Attend upon the means of salvation, the gospel of peace and reconcilia-
tion, and wait the good time, and do not stand disputing. This is that
that hinders many, their disputing and cavilling, that perhaps God hath
not a purpose to save me, and that the greatest part of mankind go tho
broad way, &c. Leave disputing, and fall to obeying. God hath a gra-
cious purpose to save all that repent of their sins and believe in Christ.
This is gospel. * I will leave secret things.' ' They belong to God,
revealed things belong to me,' Deut. xxix. 29. I will desire of God his
Spirit, to repent of my sins, and to believe and cast myself in the arms of
his mercy in Christ, and then let God do as he please. If I perish, I will

VOL. VI. Z

854 angels' acclamations.

perish in the arms of Christ. Let us labour to bring our hearts to wait in
the use of the means, for God's good Spirit to enable me to see my state
by nature, and to get out of it, by casting myself upon God's love in
Christ.

And object not the greatness of any sin to hinder the comfort of God's
mercy. It is a free mercy. The ground of it is from himself, and not from
thee. It was free to Manassas, that had sinned, no man more. Being a
king, and being the son of a good father, his sins spread further than ours
can do, answerable to the greatness of his person. Being an infinite and
free mercy, it extends to the greatest sinners. Let no man pretend any
sin or unworthiness, if he seriously repent. If any sin or unworthiness
could keep it back, it were something ; but it is a free mercy and love from
God's own bowels in Christ.

And consider how God offers this in the gospel, and lays a command. It
is thy duty to have a good conceit of God in Christ. We ought not to
suspect a man that is an honest man ; and will God take it well at our
hands to suspect him that he is so and so ? He makes a show of his love
and mercy in Christ, but perhaps he intends it not. Put it out of question
by believing. If thou have grace to believe the mercy of God in Christ,
thou makest thyself a member of Christ and an heir of heaven. Thou
questionest whether thou be one that Christ died for or no ? Believe in
him, and obey him, and thou puttest that question out of the question.
Thou doubtest whether God love thee or no ? Cast thyself upon the love
of God in Christ, and then it is out of question. Whosoever hath grace
to cast himself upon the free love of God, he fulfils the covenant of grace.
Stand not disputing and wrangling, but desire grace to obey ; and then all
questions concerning thy eternal estate are resolved ; all is clear.

If these things will not move you, then let all men know, that live in a
sinful condition, that they had better have lived in any part of the world
than in these glorious times and places of light ; for when they hear the
love of God in Christ laid open to them, if they will come in and receive
Christ, and cast themselves upon him, and be ruled by him, and they will
not, it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrha, for Jews, and Turks, and
pagans, and those that worship devils, than for us. For when God ofiers
his free love and mercy in Christ if we will entertain it, and we will none
of it, then justice alone shall not condemn us, but mercy shall condemn us ;
we will none of mercy. There is not the worst man but would have par-
doning mercy. He is content to have God pardon his sin ; but he will not
take the whole mercy and love of God in Christ, curing, healing mercy.
There are those that live in filthy courses, in profaneness, in swearing, &c.
It is food to them to be malicious, to deprave the best things. Serpents
feed on poison. They ai'e content to have their sins pardoned, if God will
let their filthy nature alone, — their poisonful, blasphemous disposition, that
exalts itself against God, — and let them go on in their course. They will
have one mercy but not another. But we shall never be saved without
entire mercy, healing as well as pardoning. Whom God loves, he doth
not only pardon their sins, but heals their nature, and makes it like unto
Christ's, holy and pure.

Those that have not the Spirit in them, desiring, altering, and changing,
and healing grace, as well as pardoning grace, they are hypocrites.

Let us remember this especially, because it is most useful ; and most
men are deceived in this. They think. Oh, God is merciful, and his love
is free in Christ ; and though I be unworthy, yet God will have mercy

angels' acclamations. 355

upon me. But hast thou a secret desire to partake of God's whole mercy
and love, to make thee good, as well as to make thee his son, and entitle
thee to heaven, to have thy nature altered, to see the deformity of sin and
the beauty of grace ? If thou hadst rather to have the image of God upon
thee more than any favour in the world, that thou hadst rather be free from
the bondage of sin than any other dehverance : if it be thus, thy state is
good.

To hasten ; considering God's free love opened now in Jesus Christ, I
beseech you, let us study Christ, and labour to get into Christ daily more
and more, that we may be members of Christ ; and desire God, daily more
and_ more, to reveal himself in Christ to us, that we may see his face in
Christ, that we may know him in the sweet relations he hath put on him
in the gospel.

To know God in general as a Creator and doing good, &c., the heathens
did that by the light of nature; but we should labour to see him in the face
of Christ ; that is, to see him appeased and loving us, wishing us well.
Concerning eternal glory, that must be by the light of the gospel, and by
the Spirit. Therefore in hearing of the word, and reading and meditating,
desire God above all to reveal by his Spirit his gracious face in Chris?;
that in Christ we may see him as a Father, as a husband, as a friend, in
those sweet relations of love that he hath taken upon him. It should be
our daily desire of God to manifest his love more to us in Christ Jesus
than m any other fruits of his love ; for there be common fruits, as to give
us health, and friends, and liberty, and quiet government, which are great
favours that we see denied to many nations. Oh, but the soul that is
touched with the Spirit of God, and the sense of his own condition bj
nature, is thus disposed: Lord, I desire that thou wouldst shew the
fruits of thy love to me ; but I desire not so much those common fruits,
that the reprobates may have as well as I. Oh shew me by thy Holy
Spirit^ that thou hast a particular and peculiar love to me in Christ ; and
for this end give me grace to know the mystery of Christ more and more,
and the mystery of my natural corruption, that knowledge that may drive
me to make much of thy love and grace in Christ ! Now, the Spirit that
knows the deep things of God, the depth of God's love to any one in par-
ticular, and the depth of our hearts, if we beg the Spirit to reveal the good
pleasure of God to us, in time God will shew unto our souls that he delights
in us, and that he is our salvation. This shews that the soul is [inj an°ex-
cellent temper, that it sets a right price and value on things, that it prizeth
God's favour above all things. That is the nature of faith ; for what is
faith ? Only to believe in general that Christ died, &c. ? No. But to
esteem God's love better than all the world ; for God's love is entire in
pardoning and curing too. By this the soul is raised up to esteem the
love and mercy of God in pardoning and healing sin above life itself: Ps.
Ixiii. 3, ' Thy loving-kindness is better than life.'

To conclude all with this one motive, the loving -Mndness of God ; when
we have it once, it is no barren, complimental kindness. It is a lovincr-
kindness that reacheth from everlasting to everlasting, from God's love m
choosing to his love in glorifying us. It is a love that reacheth to the
filling of nature with all the happiness it is capable of. In this world, in
all misery, one beam of God's loving-kindness will scatter all clouds what-
soever. What raised the spirit of Daniel in the lions' den ? of the ' three
young men ' in the midst of the furnace ? of St Paul in the dungeon '?
The beams of God's love in Christ brake into the prison, into the dun-

366 angels' acclamatioks.

geon. A few beams of that -will enlarge tlie heart more than any affliction
in the world can cast it down. It is excellent that Moses saith, Deut.
xxxiii. 16, * The good pleasure of him that dwelt in the bush,' &c. You
know that God appeared in the bush, when it was flaming. The flaming
bush shewed the state of Israel, in the midst of the furnace of persecution ;
yet notwithstanding the bush was not consumed. Why? Because the
good will of God was in the bush. So let us be in any persecution ; put
case we be like Moses's bush, all on fire ; yet the fire shall not consume
nor hurt us. "Why ? The good pleasure of him that dwelt in the bush is
with us. In Isa. xliii. 2, * I will be with thee in the fire, and in the
■water ;' not to keep thee out, but I will be with thee in it. So that in
the greatest persecutions that can be, in the fiery trial, as St Peter calls it,
' the good will of him that dwelt in the bush will be with us.' So that we
shall not be consumed, though we be in the fire ; * afflicted, but not de-
spair,' 2 Cor. iv. 8. Why ? The good pleasure of God dwells in the bush,
in the church. In the midst of afflictions and persecutions he is with us.
Who can be miserable that hath the presence of God, the favour and good
will of God ? But this shall be sufficient for this time and text.

NOTES.

(a) P. 319. — 'What that order is, I confess with St Austin, is undetermined in
Scripture ; we must not rashly presume to look into these things.' There are well-
nigh innumerable allusions to the angels, scattered through the writings of this
Father, all distinguished by that reverence and modesty of speculation, so charac-
teristic of him in treating of the ' secret things ' of God. Cf. Indices of Benedictine
edition, sub voce.

(6) P. 322. — ' There is some difference in the readings.' The Vulgate reads sli6o-
xlocg, its version being ' hominibus bonas voluntatis.' The reading is found in some
of the Fathers. The Syriac version renders ' good tidings to the sons of men.'
Sibbes refers probably to both the Vulgate and Syriac. Dean Alford has a pungent
note on the the popish adoption of sudoxlag.

(c) P. 328. — ' As Tertullian said in his time : " What ! shall we celebrate that
which is a public matter of joy to all the church, for a public shame, in a disgraceful
way"? ' There are many such remonstrances and ' rebukes' in this Father. Cf.
' Apology,' c. xxxix.

{d) P. 329. — ' As the phrase of some of the ancients is, repentance is a board to
escape to the shore, after we have made shipwreck, and done things amiss.' The
allusion is to Acts xxvii. 44, a very frequent accommodation with tlie Puritans.

(e) P. 339. — ' The heathen could say, Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia.'' We
have not fallen in with this expression. Similar ones occur in Seneca, Cicero, and
other heathen writers.

(/) P. 345. — ' For we see how comfortably they speak sometimes upon some no-
table performance for their country.' Cicero, and Seneca, and later, the ' Thoughts"
of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, which have been admirably rendered
and interpreted by George Long, M.A. (1 vol. fc. 8vo, Bell and Daldy), furnish
examples.

{g) P. 347. — ' As we see Dives.' It is singular how the un-named ' rich man ' of
the parable has gone down to posterity as Dives, tho Anglicised form of the Vulgate
rendering of TXoudiog.

THE FRUITFUL LABOUR FOR ETERNAL FOOD.

NOTE.

' The Fruitful Labour ' appeared originally in ' The Beams of Divine Light
(4to, 1639). Its separate title-page will be found below.* For general title-page
see Vol. V. page 220. G.

* THE

FRVITFULL
LABOVR

FOB

Eternall Foode.

In two Sermons,

By the late Eeverend and Learned

Divine Rich AE D Sibs,

Doctor in Divinity, Master of Katherine Hall in

Cambridge, and sometimes Preacher at

Grayes-Iiine.

E s A Y. 55. 2.
Why doe you spend money for that ivhich is not Bread?
and your labour for that which satiffieth not? Hearken di-
ligently unto mee, and eate yee that which is good, and let
your soule delight it selfe in fatnesse.

John 6. 55.
For my flesh is meate indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

L ON DON,
Printed by G. M. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford, 1639.

THE FRUITFUL LABOUR FOR ETERNAL FOOD.

Labour not for the meat that j^erislieth, hut for the meat that endureth to ever-
lasting life, which the Son of man shall give you: for him hath God the
Father sealed. — John VI. 27.

Our blessed Saviour was mighty in word and deed. Witness what he did,
what he taught, and both in this chapter.

What he did. He fed many with a few loaves. He came over the water
without any help.

What he taught. Witness from this part of the chapter to the end.

The words are part of an answer of our blessed Saviour to his hypocri-
tical followers, that followed him for the loaves, and not for any confirma-
tion of their faith by his miracles. For upon occasion of those two miracles
— mentioned in the former part of the chapter — they followed him ; and
perceiving that he was miracnlously come over the water, they began to ask
him, ' Kabbi, how camest thou here ? Our Saviour perceives that they meant
to compliment with him. He sees with what hearts they came after him.
Therefore, as most befitting the exigence of their state, because they were
hypocrites, he answers, not to their question, but to their persons, ' Verily,
verily, ye seek me, not because of the miracles, but because ye ate of the
loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat that perisheth,' &c.

The verses together contain a conviction, and an injunction or direction.

A conviction, and that is serious and loving. Serious, ' Verily, verily,
I say unto you, ye seek me, not because of the miracles, but because ye
ate of the loaves,' &c. He convinceth them of their fault, of their hypo-
crisy, of their wicked and carnal aims in holy business. They come
flattering of Christ : but as he was too holy to flatter, so he was too wise
to be flattered. He deals therefore directly with them, thoroughly con-
vinceth them of their hypocrisy and corrupt aims in following after him.
We are all naturally prone to these carnal ends in holy actions. We must
take heed with what minds, with what hearts, we come before God, whose
eyes are brighter than the sun, who regards not so much what we do, as
with what minds we do it.

As his conviction is serious, so it is loving ; for with the conviction or
reproof follows the injunction or direction, ' Labour not for the meat that
perisheth.'

In the injunction there are two things :

800

THE FRUITFUL LABOUR

First, He shews them what they should not follow. He takes them oflf
from labouring after ' the meat that perisheth.*

And then, secondly, he instructs them in what they should follow, what
they should seek after : ' but labour for the meat that endureth to everlast-
ing life,' &c.

There are arguments in both. In the first, there is an argument dis-
suasive, and that is unfolded : ' Labour not for the meat that perisheth,'
because it is meat that perisheth.

In the second, there are arguments persuasive, or enforcing to the duty,
and they are three,

The necessity.

The excellency.

The possibillity of attaining.

The necessity. It is meat ; and what so necessary as meat ?

The excellency ; and that is set forth, first, by the continuance. It is
* meat that endures.' Secondly, by the fruit or eflect of it. It is ' meat
that endures to everlasting life.' It is meat to life, and it is meat that
tends to an everlasting, to a glorious life.

The possibility of attaining it. ' The Son of man shall give it you : for
him hath the Father sealed.'

There are three things that must concur to make a thing attainable, and
to be had :

A willingness in the giver.

Power and strength to give it.

And then authority with power.

Here are all these. Here is vill to hestoiv it. He will give it. What
freer than a gift ? The Son of God became the Son of man upon puq^ose
to give it. He will give it, and he will give it freely.

Here is poii-er and strength to give it ; for he is the Son of God as well as
the Son of man.

And then here is authority joined with that pon-er, for ' the Father hath
sealed him.' The Father that created heaven and earth, that hath all
power in his hands, that is King of kings and Lord of lords, ' he hath sealed
him.' He hath given him full commission to be the Saviour of all that
trust in him. Christ came not without authority from God the Father.
He came out with God's broad seal as his commission.

So you see the arguments, both dissuasive, ' Labour not for the meat
that perisheth,' and persuasive, ' but for the meat that endureth to ever-
lasting life.' I shall but touch the former, and principally insist upon the
latter branch."

To speak a little for the explication or the words. What is here meant
by the 'meat that perisheth '?

We must enlarge the sense according to our Saviour's meaning. By ' the
meat that perisheth,' he doth not intend only outward food, but all out-
ward things whatsoever, they are the ' meat that perisheth.' All earthly
and outward things are the food that the soul of a natural man feeds upon.
The soul of a covetous man feeds upon his money, applauding himself that
he is worth so much and so much. The ambitious man, chameleon-like, feeds
upon the air, upon the airy applause of the people. The sensual man
feeds upon base and sensual pleasures. In a word, all carnal men, natural
men, are condemned to that sentence of the serpent, ' to eat dust,' to feed
upon outward, earthly, perishing things. So that everything that is not
grace and glory, or the means that lead to it, is a perishing thing.

FOB ETEENAX. FOOD. 861

*" Nay, to raise it a little higher, learning and knowledge, if it be only of
perishing things, is food that perisheth ; for as the frame of nature and the
civil frame of the world must have an end and perish, so the knowledge of
natural and civil things must needs be perishing also.

And to say no more, the very knowledge, the speculative and con-
templative knowledge of religious things, if we have only the knowledge
of the things in us, and are not turned into the things we know, is a perishing
thmg. The truths of God indeed are the food of the soul, but unless the
goodness of those truths be the food of the will and affections, unless we
are moulded and fashioned into the very form of those truths, unless we
are framed to a love and liking of that which we know, that those truths
be rooted and planted in us, it is ' food that perisheth.'

In a religious discourse, in preaching, all your ornaments, besides that
which quickeneth and strengtheneth the soul to holy duties, is ' food that
perisheth.' And your hearing, if it be only to hear witty sentences and
turnings of speech, without regard to the truth itself, is ' food that perisheth.'
Thus you see what a great latitude this food that perisheth hath in Christ's
meaning.

Now our blessed Saviour takes them off from labouring for this by a
strong argument. Would you have a greater argument ? ' It is food that
perisheth.' We do not regard the lustre of things, but their continuance.
Why do we esteem of crystal more than glass ? Because it continues.
Flowers have a goodly gloss, but we regard them little, because they are
fresh in the morning, and cast away at evening. And so it is with all
excellencies, unless it be grace or glory. All flesh is gi'ass, and the
excellentest things of nature, wit, and honour, and learning, and all, though
they be not as grass so common, yet they are as ' the flower of the grass ;
they are all fading and withering ; but the word of God endureth for ever ;'
that is, the grace and comfort that we get by the blessed truths of God,
' that endures for ever,' and it makes us endure for ever. But all other
things are food that perisheth, and we perish in the use of them. ' The
world passeth away, and the concupiscence of it ;' the world, the things
lusted after perish ; and in lusting after the world, the lust perisheth, and
we perish too in the pursuit of them ; nay, which is worse, the immoderate
seeking after these things destroy us : we eternally perish. For by placing
our affections on earthly things we turn earthly. Therefore in divinity we
have our denomination from our affections. We are called good or ill,' not
from our knowledge, but from our affections. The devil knows good, but
he is not good. It is loving, and joying, and delighting in good or ill that
makes us good or ill. We have our form and being in religion from our
affections.

Now by seeking after and placing our affections, that are ordained to close
with better things — which shall make us happy in another world — by plant-
ing them on earthly things, we become like the things, earthly ; by placing
them on the world, we become the world, we beeom^ earthly. Therefore
they are not only perishing in themselves, but we perish in the pursuit of .
them. It is a strong argument that is here used. All earthly things are
' food that perisheth.' For, alas ! he that is rich to-day may be poor
to-nioiTow. He may be as rich as Job in the morning, and as poor as Job
at night. He may be in credit now with Haman, and be in discredit ere
soon. He may be in health now, and sick ere long. We need not Scrip-
ture for this. Experience reads us this lecture enough ; but we are so
desperately set on earthly things, that neither faith nor experience, nor the

362 THE FRUITFUL LABOUR

strength of discourse, nor reason, is sufficient to take us off, till God by his
Spirit convince us thoroughly of this. Therefore Moses prays that ' God
would teach them to number their days,' Ps. xc. 12. So, though there is
a sufficient argument in the discovery of these earthly things to be perishing
things to enforce a dissuasion, yet we cannot loosen our affections to them,
nor know the uncertainty of them till God teach us.

To make some use of this in a word, and so to go on to that which I
more intend. If all things here below be grass, and as the flower of the
grass, perishing and fading things, why then we should take heed that we
do not redeeem any perishing thin// with the loss of that ivhich doth not iierish,
ivith the loss of this sold of ours, which is an eternal spiritual substance,
breathed in by God in the creation, and redeemed by Christ ; which is
capable of immortality, capable of happiness, capable of the blessed im-
pression of the image of God. * What if one should gain the whole world,'
saith Christ, that knows the price of a soul best, * and should lose his own
soul !' It is an argument sufficient even to a man that is led but with the
strength of natural reason, not to labour for that which will perish, when
he hath a soul that will not perish. To labour after that thing as his main
chief good, that is of shorter continuance than himself, is extremity of folly.
Therefore no carnal man, that seeks after these perishing things, can ever be
a wise man, because he hath an end inferior to himself. He may be wise
for particular ends, to be rich, to have great places, to get his pleasure.
This is to be wise for particular ends. But he cannot be wise for the chief,
and last, and best end, for his soul, for eternity. He cannot direct his
course that way, that labours for the * food that perisheth.'

And again, we should not pass * to neglect any earthly thing, to gain
advantage of our souls, because they are perishing things. We should force
ourselves to contentment in the loss of earthly things for the gain of
spiritual. The loss of things perishing is an easy matter. We lose things
that will perish whether we lose them or not. All earthly things perish
either in our time or after us. We should not thei-efore be over-eager in
getting of these earthly things. Let us leave things that perish to men
that perish. You see therefore how strong a reason our Saviour Christ
allegeth here, ' Labour not for the meat that perisheth, because it
perisheth.'

And learn here from our blessed Saviour a point of heavenly wisdom.
You see when he would take us off and dissuade us from the pursuit of
earthly things, he takes an argument from the nature of them. They are
perishing things ; and therefore, when we look upon the outward lustre of
earthly things, we should withal consider the perishing nature of them.
When we are tempted to too much delight in the creature, we should
present to ourselves the perishing and fading nature of outward things.
When we are tempted to sin, either to commit or to leave that which is
good for anything that is outward, we should consider, What do I now ?
I stain my soul, I d|ack my conscience, I contract guilt and grounds of
terror for the time to come for that which is perishing. ^ It is always good
to have present to our souls and to our fancies the nature of earthly things,
that they may be as present as the temptation that Satan from them urgeth
and forceth upon the soul. It is good always |to remember that they are
perishing things, and that as they are perishing in themselves, so they will
destroy us, cause us to perish in the pursuit of them. But my meaning
is not to dwell long upon this.

* That is, = ' hesitate.' — G.

FOR ETERNAL FOOD. 863

' Labour not for the meat that perisheth.'

What ! Doth Christ mean that we should nof labour at all for earthly
things ? Doth he read a lecture of ill husbandry, and unthriftiness, and
negligence ?

No. He doth as we do. When we would set a crooked thing straight,
we bend it as much the contrary way. Our Saviour saw that they were
desperately addicted to earthly things, that they followed him for their
bellies, sought him for the loaves, therefore he bends the stick the con-
trary way : ' Labour not for the meat that perisheth ; ' that is, labour not
for it in comparison of better things ; labour not so inordinately, so im-
moderately, labour not so unseasonably. It is said of the Israelites that
they brought Egypt into the wilderness, because they brought the love of
the garlic and onions of Egypt with them, Num. xi. 5, We have many
come to the church, to these holy exercises, to this holy place, but they
bring the world with them. They come with carnal affections. Labour
not so unseasonably. It should be our heavenly wisdom to lay aside im-
portunate earthly thoughts of earthly things ; to drive them away, as Abra-
ham did the birds from the sacrifice. Gen. xv. 11. We should leave them
as he did the beasts and his servants, at the bottom of the mount, when
he went up to sacrifice unto God, Gen. xxii. 5. Thus, labour not; labour
not immoderately ; labour not inordinately ; labour not unseasonably.

But how shall we know when our labour is immoderate, unseasonable,
and inordinate after earthly things ?

I answer. In a word, when they either hinder us from, or hinder us in,
holy things ; when they keep us from holy duties, as from the sanctifying
of the Lord's day, or from any other service of God ; or when they hinder
us in them ; when they fill us full of distractions ; when they turn the
soul from the business in hand, &c. Thus, when they do either hinder us
from or hinder us in better things, we may know we offend against this
dissuasion of Christ. ' Labour not for the meat that perisheth.'

But why doth our Saviour begin first with his dissuasion, ' Labour not
for the meat that perisheth,' and then enjoin what they should seek after,
but ' for the meat that endureth to everlasting life ' ?

Because he saw that their souls were corrupted, and desperately set
upon the seeking after earthly things ; and when the soul is invested to
anything, there must first be a removal of that ; as in ground, the thorns
must first be rooted out before there be any sowing of seed ; and in bodily
distempers, there must first be a purging of the malignant humour before
there be any cordials given. So Christ, he first takes them oft' from an
immoderate and inordinate seeking after the world and earthly things,
and then he directs them what they should do, what they should seek
after : ' Seek the food that endures to everlasting life.'

Here is the prerogative of Christianity. A heathen man, out of the
strength of moral discourse and outward experience, can teach the negative
part, can tell you that all earthly things are vain and perishing. A stoic
will declaim wittily and gravely from moral principles and daily experience
upon these things ; that these earthly things of themselves are all vain and
fading, and that it is our conceit of them only that bewitcheth us to them :
it is that only that renders them to us green and fresh. But now for the
affirmative part, what we should seek after ; here paganism is blind. That
is only to be learned in the church of Christ. It is proper to Christianity
to direct us here, as I shall discover better to you when I come to speak
of the duty enjoined, which is that I especially aim at.

864

THE FEUITFUL LABOUB

But before I come to enforce the act or duty which our Saviour here
exhorts unto, I must unfold the object of that act : what is meant here by
the ' meat that endures to everlasting life.'

The 'meat that endures to everlasting life' is our blessed Saviour Christ
Jesus, as he is contained and wrapped up in the means of salvation, with
all the blessed liberties, privileges, and prerogatives, graces, and comforts,
that we have by him and in him. For our blessed Saviour never goes
alone. He is never embraced naked ; but with him goes his graces, com-
forts, prerogatives, and liberties. We have him not now as we shall see
him * face to face ' hereafter in heaven ; but he is to be considered as
wrapped up in the word and sacraments. So is Christ the food that lasts
to everlasting life. And in this latitude we must take it, or else we mis-
take and straiten the Holy Ghost.

But why is our blessed Saviour so considered, and the comforts, and
prerogatives, and good things we have by him, termed food ?

In divers respects. To instance in a few. But, first, you must know that
as the soul hath a life as well as the body, so it hath a taste as well as the
body ; and as God, lest the body should pine away, hath planted in it an
appetite, which is the body's longing after that which refresheth it — for if
it were not for appetite, if it were not for hunger and thirst, who would care
for meat and drink ? — so God hath planted in the soul, lest it should pine
away, a spiritual appetite, an earnest longing and desiring after that which
is the most necessary good of the soul ; for the soul hath that which the
body hath, taste, and smell, &c., though in a more sublime and divine
sense, but as really and truly, as we shall see afterwards. Now our blessed
Saviour is this spiritual food of the soul. He is the bread of life that came
down from heaven ; he is the true manna ; he is the true tree of life in
paradise, in the church of God, the true paradise. He is the true shew-
bread ; he is the true Lamb of God.

He, considered with all the blessed prerogatives, and privileges, and
comforts we have by him, is called meat or food for divers respects.

First, Whatsoever sweetness, or comfort, or strength there is in meat, it is
for the comfort, and strength, and good of the body; so whatsoever is com-
fortable and cherishing in Christ, as indeed all comfort and cherishing is in
him, it is for our good ; to us he is given, for us he was born : ' To us a
child is born, to us a Son is given,' Isa. ix. 6 ; all is for us, for us men,
for us sinners. There is nothing in his natures, in his state and condition,
both of abasement and exaltation, nothing in his offices, but it is all for our
good. Consider him in his human nature, and join with his nature his
abasement : that he was man, that he took upon him our nature, that he
was abased in it, that he humbled himself to death, even to the death of the
cross, to be a sacrifice for our sins; how doth the soul feed on this, on the
wonderful love of God in giving Christ to be incarnate, and then to die for
us ! How doth the soul feed upon the death of Christ, because by that
God's wrath is appeased, and he reconciled ! * Where the dead body is,
there the eagles resort,' Mat. xxiv. 28. So doth the soul prey and feed
upon the dead body of Christ. Christ crucified is the special food of the
soul.

Consider him in his exaltation, in his glorious resurrection and ascen-
sion into heaven ; how doth the soul feed upon that? Christ our surety has
risen again. Therefore our debt is discharged, the justice of God is satis-
fied to the full. So for his ascension. When the soul is basely-minded
on earthly things, it ascends to Christ, who is taken up to heaven for us.

FOR ETERNAL FOOD. 365

So his sitting at the right hand of God. The soul feeds on that, because
he sits there till he have triumphed over all his enemies, till he have trod
them all under foot.

Consider him in his offices. In ignorance the soul feeds on him as a
prophet to instruct it. In the sense of wrath and anger, the soul feeds on
him as a priest to make peace and reconciliation. In vi-ant of righteous-
ness, the soul feeds on this righteousness : ' he is our righteousness.' In
the sense of corruption, the soul feeds on him as a king, that by his Spirit
will ere long work out all corruption ; that as he will tread down all our
enemies without, so he will tread down all corruption within. He will
never leave the soul till he have made it a glorious house, fit for himself.

So the prerogatives we have by him, the soul feeds on them, feeds on
his redemption ; that by his redemption we are freed from our enemies and
all that hate us, and all that we feared ; that we are set at liberty from the
law, from sin, and from death ; and notwithstanding all the debasements of
this world, we are ' the sons of God and heirs of heaven.'

In a word, whatsoever is in Christ is for our good. He is all mine ; his
life is mine ; his death is mine ; his resurrection is mine ; his ascension
is mine ; all is mine. He is expended and laid open for my good. That
is the first.

Again, As in the bodily life there is a stomach, a power to work out of the
meat that which is for strength and nourishment, so in the soul there is
faith, the spiritual mouth and stomach of the soul, to work and draw out
of Christ wlaatsoever is for the comfort and nourishment of it. As there is
comfort in Christ, so the Spirit of God gives a man a hand, a mouth, as it
were ; gives a man faith to work out of Christ somewhat for comfort.
What were food if there were not a stomach to digest it, to make it a
man's own? So what were Christ if we had not faith to lay hold on
him?

Again, thirdly. As our life is nourished and maintained with that which is
dead, ivith dead things, so the chief dish that maintaineth and nourisheth
the Hfe of the soul, as I said before, is ' Christ crucified.' ' God forbid,'
saith the apostle, ' that I should rejoice in anything but in Christ crucified.'
When the soul of a poor sinner is pursued with accusations from Satan and
his own conscience, when they take part with God against him, whither
runs it? To the city of refuge. It runs to Christ, to Christ crucified.
Thither the soul flies, being pursued with the guilt of sin ; ' to the horns of
the altar,' as Joab did when he was pursued, but with better success, for
he was pulled from thence, 1 Kings ii. 28. But the soul that flies to
Christ crucified, to the death of Christ, to Christ abased, to his satisfy-
ing the wrath of God by his death, and making of us friends with God,
there it holds ; there it lives ; and there it will continue for ever. This
keeps the soul alive.

And then again, as in meat, before it can nourish 2ts, there must be an
union, an assimilation, a turning of it into us, so Christ, except he be
made one with us by faith, unless there be an union between him and us,
he can never nourish and comfort us savingl3^

Again, As we oft eat, and after xce have received food once, yet we eat again
every day, because there is a decay of strength — and there are still new busi-
nesses, new occasions that require new strength — and therefore there is need of
a continual repairing of our strength by food, even so there is a perpetual
exigence, a continual need that the soul hath to feed upon Christ, upon the
promises of Christ, and the prerogatives by Christ, because every day we

866 THE FRUITFUL LABOUR

have fresh impediments, fresh assaults, and therefore we have need to
fetch fresh supphes and refreshment from Christ, to have meat from Christ
every day ; to Hve on Christ not only at the first, but continually ; that as
our corruptions, and temptations, and infirmities return every day, so every
day to feed on Christ for the repairing of our spiritual strength. Especially
we are to make daily use of the death of Christ ; for howsoever the death
of Christ be transient in respect of the act of it, as one of the ancients
saith (a), yet the fruit of it remains for our daily comfort and refreshment.
His blood runs every day in the church afresh, like a fountain always
poured out, for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in, Zech. xiii. 1. It always
runs ; that is, in regard of God's imputation, in regard of the fruit that
comes to the soul ; and therefore we should make daily use of it for the
comfort and strength of our souls upon all occasions. ' We have an advo-
cate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous : and he is the propitiation
for our sins,' 1 John ii. 1. He is now an intercessor in heaven'; he con-
tinually applies the fruit of his death now by his intercession in heaven.

Again, As, after meat received and eaten, there is strength and comfort
gotten for the ajfairs of this life, so likewise after the soul hath digested and
relished Christ, and the benefits and prerogatives that come by him, after
we have made the heavenly truths of Christ our own, the soul is strength-
ened to holy duties. It is fit to do ; it is fit to suffer ; it is fit to resist
temptations ; it is fit to perform all the services of Christianity.

In these and divers other respects Christ is the blessed meat here men-
tioned ; not himself alone, but considered with all the blessed good things
which we have by him. For Christ, as I said before, is never alone. If
we have him, we are sons in him ; we are heirs in him ; we are free in
him ; we are redeemed in him ; we are kings in him ; priests in him ;
prophets in him ; we are all in him ; we have with him all the good things
that he hath ; for as we have not them without him, so we have not him
without them. Those that have the field, have the pearl in the field ;
and they that have the pearl in the field, have the field. They that have
Christ, have Christ clothed with all his blessed prerogatives, and privi-
leges, and comforts.

But wherein heth the difierence between this meat, this food of the soal,
and other meat ?

In these things. First of all, Christ, as he is from heaven, so all the
graces and comforts that we have by him, are all from heaven, and they carry
us to heaven. All the other things are earthly.

Secondly, All earthly food doth not give, hut maintain life ivhere it is; but
Christ he is snch a food as gives life. He is as well hfe as food : 'I am the
life,' John xi. 25.

Again, thirdly. The nourishment we have from this outivard food, we turn
to ourselves ; but Christ, this spiritual vieat, turns us into himself, transforms
us into his own likeness ; for Christ ofiered to us in the gospel being digested
by faith, doth by his Spirit change us every way into his own likeness.

Lastly, All other meats are consumed in the spending, and there will a time
come when ive shall not be able to relish any worldly thing ; our mouth will
he out of taste with these outivard things. But Christ, the food of the soul,
is never consumed, but grows more and more ; and when we can relish no
other, we may relish this food that endures to everlasting life. It always
satisfies the soul. All earthly things are as salt water, that increase the
appetite, but satisfy not. Only Christ and grace, and the comforts we have
by him, satisfy, and that everlastingly. They are as a spring that never dies.

FOR ETERNAL FOOD. 367

As he himself in his own person endures to everlasting life, so all that we
have by him is everlasting. Grace is everlasting. Grace ends in glory.
Christ always satisfies, though not wholly here, because there must be a
continual recourse to him ; yet he will satisfy hereafter. ' Blessed are
they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied '
Mat. V. 6.

Thus you see what is meant by the ' food that endures to everlasting
life,' and the reason of the resemblance and the difference that is between
this and other meat.

Here are arguments enough then to enforce us to a labouring after this
meat that endures to everlasting life, that is so agreeable to the best part
of us, that is able to make us happy ; to labour by faith to get them to be
our own.

Now the labour required is especially to get a stomach to this meat.
God requires nothing of us when we come to his delicacies but that we
bring a good stomach with us. I will therefore speak a little of that, what
we must do to get an appetite to this spiritual meat.

A good stomach, we know, is procured hy sharp things. The paschal
lamb was ' to be eaten with sour herbs,' Exod. xii. 8. If we would have
an appetite after Christ, labour daily to consider what a cursed estate we
are in without Christ. God hath left the law, as for other purposes, so for
this, that we should feed upon the threatenings of it, that it should drive
us to Christ. A legal faith is the way to evangelical. Labour therefore
thoroughly to be convinced of the need thou standest in of Christ, and then
I need not bid thee to labour for the food that endures to everlasting life.
That will sharpen thy appetite after it. And beg of God illuminatton to
see the ill that is in thee, and the ill that belongs to thee, God hath left
infirmities and corruptions in us on purpose for this end, and likewise we
have temptations without us. We carry not only a hell within us, which
if _ God should not keep in would carry us to despair ; but there is a hell
without us, the temptations of Satan, the accusations of the law, the anger
and wrath of God. Thus we should labour to be convinced of our wretched
estate without Christ, the danger we are in if God should take us hence on
a sudden. This will force every day a fresh appetite and stomach in the
soul to feed on Christ.

Secondly, If we would sharpen our appetites to this food, ive must purge
our stomachs, which naturally surfeit of earthly things. Purge the soul by
a consideration of the vanity of all other things that draw us from Christ.
The reason why we have no better relish of Christ and heavenly things is,
because we cleave in our affections so much to earthly things. We set up
idols in our hearts instead of Christ, and we cleave in an adulterous and
false affection unto them. Let us set before us arguments of the vanity of
all things but Christ ; and there can be no better argument than here is
set down, ' they are all perishing things.' That which the soul neglects
Christ, and heaven, and happiness for, and is so madly set upon, alas !
they are all base in respect of the soul. The whole world is not worth a
soul. They are all perishing things, of less continuance than the soul is.
We should purge our souls by such considerations as these.

Then again, thirdly, exercise getting a stomach. Let us every day spend
our spiritual strength in spiritual exercises, in resisting temptations, in
withstanding the snares of Satan, in bearing those daily crosses that God
lays upon us. Live as Christians should Hve, and the exercise of a
Christian life will enforce us to go unto Christ tr feed on him, to fetch

368 THE FRUITFUL LABOUR

from him spiritual strength. When in our daily exercise we shall see the
continual need we have of pardon for daily sins, of comfort and strength
against daily corruptions and infirmities, this will make us feed on Christ
and on the promises made in him — not only on the promise of forgiveness,
but on the promise of a supply of necessary grace, on that sweet promise,
that ' he will not quench the smoking flax, nor break the braised reed,'
Mat. xii. 20 — feed on him as a King to subdue our corruptions, &c. The
daily exercise of a Christian life will force us unto Christ.

Again, To whet our appetite after Christ, consider the necessity we have of
spiritual streufjih and comfort. When a man considers that he hath a jour-
ney to take, he will eat to enable him to his journey ; as Elias was bid to
rise up and eat, because he had a journey to go, 1 Kings xix. 7. We are
all to take a journey as far as heaven, and we are to travel through the
wilderness of this world ; and we shall be daily assaulted, besides our
inward corruptions, with divers temptations ; and therefore we had need
every day to fetch strength from Christ. And consider that sickness will
come, and death will surprise us ; and if we have not Christ, we are
wretched creatures without him. And though we have applied Christ to
ourselves, and made him our own, yet a time of desertion, a time of trial,
will come. Thus the necessity of spiritual strength will force us to feed
upon Christ.

Again, To get us a stomach to these things, let 7is converse with those that
are spiritual, with those that are heavenly -minded, ' that have tasted of
heavenly things,' Heb. vi. 4. When we see them delight in reading, delight
in hearing ; when we see them contemplate of heaven and heavenly things,
on Christ and the benefits we have by Christ, on the blessed condition of a
better life, and of the world to come ; when we see these persons that are
better than ourselves, that have less cause than we, take such pains for
their souls, we will be ashamed of our own neglect ; and it will be the dis-
course of a soul presently with itself, Surely there is some excellent strength
and comfort in these things, some extraordinary sweetness and refreshment
that these men find, that they so fall to them. It is a great advantage to
converse with those that are spiritual.

And lastly. To put an edge to our dull appetites after this food, consider
we know not how soon this table that Christ hath spread, these dainties that
wisdom hath provided for its in the ministry of the word, may he taken from
us. Therefore, let us fall to while we have them. We should do as those
do, that, being at a feast, and have neglected feeding, at the latter end, when
they see all ready to be taken away, fall to afresh. We know not how long
we may enjoy these blessed opportunities. Therefore now with Joseph,
let us lay up against a time of scarcity. There will a hard winter come.
Therefore, let us imitate the wisdom of that poor creature the ant, to pro-
vide against winter, Prov. vi. 6. Now, while the jubilee is, let us take out
a pardon. There is a time of spending to come ; now let us * get oil in
our lamps,' Mat. xxv. 4. Now is the seed time ; now are the waters stirred
in the pool of Bethesda ; now is the acceptable time of grace. We know
not how long it shall continue. Therefore, now let us labour for the food
• that endureth to everlasting life.' I never knew any repent of the pains
they had taken for their souls ; but many that have lamented and bewailed
the precious time they have spent, and that they have not been good hus-
bands for their souls. It is one special point of heavenly wisdom to take
advantage of our precious time, to fill it up with holy exercises. Let us
often offer this consideration to our souls, Wherefore was I sent hither into

FOK ETERNAL FOOD. 369

this world ? What is the end why I live here ? Is it to scrape together
perishing things, and so to perish with them ? Or am I not rather sent
hither to get out of the state of corruption wherein we all are by nature ?
to get into Christ, to make him mine own, to be turned into him, to feed
on him, to get joy, and comfort, and strength from him ? Is not this the
end why I live here ?

But to go on, and to make an use of trial, whether we have, as we should
do, relished and tasted Christ, whether we have fed on this meat or no.
How shall we know that ?

I answer. We may easily know it. For, first of all, if we have relished
Christ and the good things by him, we disrelish all other things ; we begin to
have a baser esteem of all earthly things. It is with the soul as it is with
a balance. When Christ is high in the soul, other things are low ; and
when other things are high, Christ is low in the soul. Christ was high in
Paul's soul ; therefore he esteemed all as * dung' in comparison of the
excellent knowledge of Christ, Philip, iii. 8. The poor woman of Samaria,
when she had heard Christ, and tasted the sweetness that was in him, down
goes her water-pot, and she runs to the city and tells them, ' I have seen
a man that hath told me all things ; is not this the Messiah ?' John iv. 29.
Zaccheus, when he had tasted of grace, and had the pardon of his sins by
Christ, ' half my goods I give to the poor,' &c., Luke xix. 8. When grace
is planted in the soul, when the soul hath tasted once of better things, there
will be a mean and base esteem of earthly things. The more the soul
feeds on heavenly things, the less respect it hath to temporal things. The
soul is a finite essence, and it cannot spend itself on all things. The more
it runs into severals, the more shallow it is to others ; as in a stream, when
it is cut into many channels it runs weakly in the several, whereas it runs
strongly in the main. So it is with the soul : when it is scattered, as the
poor Israelites were about the land of Egypt to gather straw, to gather
these perishing earthly things, it is weak to heavenly things ; it hath little
strength to those. But when the course of it is wholly bent to those, there
are but weak or no desires running to these earthly things. When once
the soul of a Christian hath had a true taste and relish of the things of
heaven, it looks with a despising eye upon whatsoever is here below.
When once it hath tasted of Christ, then especially it grows out of relish
with poison ; then away with popery ! away with false doctrine ! away with
hypocrisy and formality in religion !

Again, secondly. We may know that we have tasted Christ, and fed on
him, and on the good things that are by him, ivhen ive are strengthened by
our feeding ; when ive are strengthened to duties ; strengthened against tenta-
tions* and against corruptions. Thou sayest thou believest on Christ, and
hast made him thine own ; what comfort and strength feelest thou by
Christ ? Art thou able to encounter a tentation ? Art thou able to resist
a lust ? Art thou able to perform holy services ? If there be no strength
in thee, but every tentation turns thee over, and thou yieldest to every base
lust, where is Christ ? Canst thou believe Christ to be thy King, and yet
sufier thy lusts to bear sway in thee ? Canst thou believe that Christ is a
priest that died for thy sins, and yet cherishest and lovest sin ? Canst
thou believe that Christ is in heaven, and that thou art in heavenly places
with Christ, and yet hast no mind of heavenly things, but art carried away
with every earthly thing? No. Thou hast not yet tasted how]^ood and
gracious the Lord is ; thou hast not relished the heavenly manna. The
* That is, ' temptations.' — G.

VOL. VI. A a

870

THE FRUITFUL LABOUR

Boul that feeds on Christ is strengthened from spiritual reasons, and super-
natural grounds, and divine principles drawn fr'om Christ, to duty, so that
it is enabled even with a holy violence to do anything for Christ's sake ;
for the soul reasons thus : Christ gave himself to death for me ; I will
therefore, if need be, give myself to death for him. Christ thought
nothing too dear for me, I will think nothing too dear for him. This
pride, this vanity that I am tempted to, these were the spears that were
the death of my Saviour. Thus the soul fetches reasons from the death of
Christ to strengthen it against temptations, to strengthen it to duty ; and
60 for the matter of comfort. After meat hath been received we are
refreshed. If the soul be sweetly refreshed with the comforts that are to
be had in Christ, and in the word of Christ, it is a sign we have tasted
Christ. Those that have trembling and discouraging hearts and souls, that
cannot rest nor receive comfort, it is a sign they have not rightly tasted
Christ. 'Come unto me,' saith Christ, 'all ye that are weary and heavy
laden, and ye shall find rest to your souls,' Mat. xi. 28. In Christ there
IS rest, out of Christ there is no rest. And so likewise those that have
corruptions bearing sway in them. It is a sign they have not so much as
touched Christ, for if they had but touched Christ, he would stop the issue
of their corruptions. The poor woman in the gospel, as soon as she had
touched Christ, her bloody issue was stayed ; so, upon the least touch of
Christ by faith, there will be an abating of corruption.

Thirdly, In the bodily life, we know after a good meal the desire and
appetite is satisfied, so the soul that tastes of Christ, it hath sweet satisfac-
tion and contentment. Oh the sweet satisfaction that a Christian soul hath
above a heathen ! A Christian, that hath Christ, need not go out of him for
anything. It hath fulness and satisfaction in him in all estates, both in
life and in death. Dost thou find Christ, and the privileges and preroga-
tives we have by him ; dost thou find the word of Christ and the promises
of the word fully and sufficiently satisfy thee ? Then it argues that thou hast
fed on Christ ; for Christ being received by faith into the soul, gives it
fulness and contentment.

Lastly, To name no more, as men, if they have the grace of God in their
hearts, uill give thanks for their bodily food, so it is an evidence that we
have fed on Christ, when our hearts and tongues are enlarged to praise God
for Christ, for the comforts, and contentment, and satisfaction that we find
m him and in religion. Therefore St Paul begins his epistle to the
Ephesians with 'Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,'
Eph. i. 3. And St Peter, being led by the same blessed Spirit, his heart
being full, his mouth is full of thanks : ' Blessed be God the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again to an inheritance immortal,
that fadeth not away, reserved for you in the heavens,' 1 Peter i. 4, for
you that are reserved by faith to salvation. So, undoubtedly, the soul 'that
tastes the sweet comforts of religion in Christ will be much in sweet en-
largements of heart in thanksgiving. It cannot be otherwise. It is an
universal reason. The more believing a soul is, the more thankful a soul
is. Where there is no praise, there is no faith.

Thus you see how we may try whether we have tasted and relished,

whether we have fed upon 'the food that endures to everlasting life ' or no.

Taste is the most necessary sense of all, saith a wise searcher of the

mysteries of nature : our life is maintained by taste (h). Eveiy creature

sees not, every creature hears not, but every creature hath taste. You may

FOR ETEENAIi FOOD.

871

judge of yourselves by your taste and relish ; and if once you have tasted
and relished Christ, all the world cannot persuade you to fall from him.
If all should say there were no 'sweetness in religion, that it were better to
be a worldling, &c., you would defy* it ; you would never believe it. There
is no disputing against what a man tastes. If all men should say sugar
were sharp, if I once tasted it I would say otherwise.

' Labour for the meat that endures to everlasting life.'

The arguments enforcing this act upon the object to labour for Christ
are, that he is food, and food that endures ; ' and food that endures to
everlasting life.'

Let me from these arguments here in the text, for I will draw no other,
enforce what I have said before. I have shewed you what this labour is,
and rules how you may know whether you rightly labour for this food
or no. Now to enforce this act, consider, first, the necessity of that our
Saviour here enjoins us to ; it is food.

It is a strange thing that persons should persuade themselves that they
are Christians, and yet go from day to day without refreshing themselves
with Christ, and with the meditation of the blessed estate they are in by
him, both in respect of this world and that which is to come ; without
getting strength from Christ against tentations and against corruptions.
Christ is food, and the promises and prerogatives we have by him are food.
We should labour after it every day, feed on it every day. If a man should
ask a man in his calling, Why do you take such pains, morning and evenmg,
rising early and going to bed late ? he would answer, It is to get bread ;
it is to get food to maintain my family. So should it be our answer to any
that wonder why we take such pains for our souls, why we labour so after
Christ. Oh, remember we take pains for Hfe ; to get and maintam life ;
and what is so necessary as life ? And if life be so necessary, food which
preserves it must be necessary. We see the patriarchs for food left their
country ; and the poor Egyptians sold themselves and their cattle, and all
to get food to keep life. We famish eternally except we feed on Christ ;
except we have so much faith as makes us one with him ; except by faith
we digest him and get nourishment and strength from him. It will appear
to be°so when it is too late. Ere long nothing in the world will relish us;
and then if we have not Christ and the things of another hfe to relish us,
what will become of us ? I beseech you, consider what opinion and judg-
ment we shall have ere long of these earthly things, and of the better things
of another world. At the hour of death, our judgments will be convinced
that the things of heaven are the best things ; and if it be true that they
will be so then, why is it not true that they are so now ? Labour to have
the same judgment now.

With the necessity our blessed Saviour joineth the excellency ot this
food, ' It is food that endures to everlastinrf life: Christ and the good things
we have by him are of equal extent and of equal time with our souls. It
we labour for earthly things, we labour after that which is of shorter con-
tinuance than our souls. We may outlive our happiness, and what a
miserable state is that ! But if we labour for the food that endures to
everlasting life, our happiness is of the same continuance with our souls,
and that is only true happiness.

If there were such a tree upon the earth now as there was in paradise,
a tree of life, that whosoever should taste of the fruit of it should hve,
* That is, in the literal sense, = disbelieve.— Ed.

372

TUE FRUITFUL LABOUR

though but on the earth here to enjoy his sensual pleasures, oh what
would not men give for a little fruit of that tree, though it were to redeem
a httle time, and to lengthen out a fading, base life on earth, but much more
to live for ever ! Here is food * that endures to everlasting life,' to such a
life as IS heavenly and glorious. Now, blessed be God that since we are
cast out of the fii-st paradise by sin, that'now in our relapsed estate God is
so merciful to us as to provide another manner of tree of life. That in
paradise was but a typical tree. The true tree of life is Christ ; and who-
soever feeds on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Certainly
if we believed this, it could not be, but it would wondrously set us on to
labour after this meat, because it is not only food that tends to the preser-
vation of life, but to life everlasting, to a life that endures as long as our
souls.

_ And let us know that if we do not labour for this meat that brings to this
life, look what degree of excellency we have had in the rank of the creatures,
the same degree we shall have in misery ; for as the angels in the degree
of excellency were the most excellent creatures, but being fallen they are in
the same degree of misery that they were in happiness, and are now the
most accursed creatures of all others, so man, as he is a most excellent
creature, if he feed on the food that endures to everlasting life ; so if like
Nebuchadnezzar he feed as a beast on earthly things, and forget his soul
and affections, which are made to close and feed on Christ and better things,
he shall have the same degree of misery that he hath in happiness, ev'en
next to the devils, the most wretched creature that can be. What if a
man were clad as Aaron was in all his pontificality, in his priestly robes !
What if he should feed deliciously every day as Dives ! What and if he
had the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Samson ! What and if he had
all the kingdoms of the world ! If he have not the * food that endures to
everlasting life,' he should be stripped of all these ere long. It is only
Christ, and the good things that are to be had in him and by him, that con-
tinue everlastingly.

This should enforce us to labour after this food in the use of all good
means. And before I leave the point, consider the reality, the truth of
these heavenly things, of these things we have by Christ, ' the second
Adam,' alUhings else are shadows. The food that nourisheth the body is
not food in comparison of that. Earthly kingdoms are not kingdoms
in respect of that; earthly sonship is not sonship to that; earthly
riches they are nothing, they are vanity in comparison of that. Earthly
inheritance is no inheritance in comparison of the inheritance we have
by Christ. All other things are but titles of things. They are but empty
things. There is a reality in Christ, a truth in the kingdom of gi-ace.
Alas ! what is riches, what are pleasures, what are honours, what is son-
ship, what are all earthly things, in comparison of the soul, which is an
inimortal, a spiritual, an eternal substance ? They are but shadows. Those
things that are of equal extent and continuance with the soul ; and not
only of equal extent, but that raise the soul to have communion with God
in heaven, with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; there is the reality, there
is the truth, if we will have the truth of things. ' I am that bread,' saith
Christ afterwards in this chapter, ' and my flesh is meat indeed, and my
blood is drink indeed,' as if other meat and other drink refreshed not
indeed, but were only shadows of things.

Labour therefore for this meat; and certainly, if so be the Spirit of God
once convince your judgments that these things which I say are true, both

FOR ETERNAL FOOD. 373

for the necessity and excellency of this food, they will be eflfectual to stir
you up to labour more after this food that endures to everlasting life. So
much for that.

* Which the Son of man shall give you, for him hath God the Father
sealed.'

To come now to the possibility of attaining this food, which is the third
argument our blessed Saviour useth to enforce upon us this injunction, to
' labour for the food that endures to everlasting life.' Hope stirreth up
endeavour, as we see in merchandizing. Though when we venture beyond
the seas we commit all to wind and water, as they say, and it is doubtful
what the issue may be, yet we hope, and that sets us on work. So the poor
husbandman, but that he hopes to have a comfortable issue, to have a
harvest, he would never set himself to work. Now here is hope ; and hope
on a better ground a great deal ; for he that makes other things successful,
he hath given Christ for this purpose ; and Christ, you see here, he gives
himself, ' which the Son of man shall give you.'

Here is all that we may ground and found our hope upon. Here is will,
here is power, and here is authority to give it.

Here is will ; Christ will give it. Why ? Because he is the Son of
man. What use is there of these words in this place ? Why doth he not
say, ' which the Son of God shall give you ' ?

Oh, the Son of God without the Son of man is indeed a fountain of good
things, but he is a sealed fountain ; alas ! of no comfort. Our comfort is
in Immauuel, God-man. All our comfort is to be brought back to God,
from whom we fell in paradise, and we must be brought back again to
God by God. But unless God bad become man, man had never come
back again to God. Therefore all the union and communion we have with
God, it depends on this first union of Christ with our nature, that the Son
of God became the Son of man, as St Austin saith (c) ; for now the next
union, that we become the sons of God, it comes from this, that God
became man. And therefore he saith here, ' the Son of man shall give it
you.' You need not climb up to heaven to fetch this food that endures to
everlasting life, for the Son of God is come down from heaven to^ earth to
take the nature of man ; and in that to die, in that to satisfy God's wrath,
and so to become this blessed and everlasting food ; the Son of man,
' the second Adam.' As by one man we all come to misery, so by the
* second Adam,' by man, we are restored to a blessed condition again.
Therefore he saith here ' the Son of man,' because in the human nature
all our salvation was wrought. Indeed, the worth and efl&cacy of our sal-
vation comes from the divine nature ; but it was wrought in man's nature,
the divine nature could not work it alone. But I will not dwell pn this. _

' The Son of man shall give it you.' You need not fear it, God is
become man on purpose to give it you. We may now boldly go to a
mediator which is made bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. We
should have feared and trembled if he had only been God, but now all
grace and comfort is hid in this nature of ours in Christ. If Christ had
not took this poor, wretched nature of ours upon him, it had been a hate-
ful nature to God. God hated the nature of man ; but now, because the
Son of God is become the Son of man, our nature is become lovely in the
eyes of God; and not only lovely, but it is filled in him with all grace,
and of his ' fulness we receive grace for grace,' John i. 16. He will give
it therefore, because he is ' the Son of man.'

874

THE FRUITFUL LABOUR

Here is •will ; ay, but what power and strength hath he to give it ?
He is so the Son of naan as that he is also the Son of God. Therefore
we are said, Acts xx. 28, ' to be redeemed with the blood of God.' Christ
by his eternal Spirit, by his Godhead, offered himself a sacrifice for sin.
So that he can give it because he is God.
But what authority hath he 9

He is ' sealed ' to do it. That is the third ; that is, he hath authority,
for authority is here expressed by ' sealing.' Now, Christ is said to be
' sealed,' first, because there is the impression of God t(pon him. Even as
the seal imprints in the wax the likeness of that which is in it, so God
hath imprinted in Christ his own likeness. He is the image of God, for
Christ as he is God is the character* of his Father ; and his human nature
is likewise as like God as nature can express. ' We saw,' saith the apostle,
' his glory, the glory as of the only begotten; Son of God,' John i. 14. We
saw a kind of divinity in him, as much as human nature could receive ; the
likeness of God sparlded in him ; therefore he is said to be ' sealed.' But
that is not all, nor the principal here meant.

Again, secondly, The use of a seal is to ojjprojmate and distinguish from
other things ; so Christ is sealed, that is, God hath appropriated him to be
his own Son, and to be a mediator of his own appointing, and hath distin-
guished him from all others by a blessed anointing and quahfication of him
above all. He is as Saul among the rest, higher than all ; he is as Aaron,
anointed with the oil of gladness, but above his fellows, and yet for his
fellows. From him distils the blessed ointment of grace. It is poured on
his head first, and descends from him down to all the skirts of his garment,
to all his members. So here is in this sealing likeness, distinction, and
appropriation.

But especially by sealing here is meant authority : for a thing sealed is
not only to distinguish and appropriate to a man's use, but to authorise
also. As a magistrate that hath the king's broad seal, he is authorised ;
so Christ he hath God's seal, God hath authorised him to be a mediator ;
and as he was foreordained before all worlds, as the apostle Peter saith,
'to be the head of -them that should be saved, and to be their mediator,'
1 Pet, i. 9, seq., so when the fulness of time was come, when he came in
the flesh, he was authorised by the greatest testimony that ever was, by
the blessed Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, at his bap-
tism. ' This is my beloved Son, hear him,' saith a voice from heaven.
Mat. iii. 17. There was the Father, the Son in the voice, the Holy Ghost
in the dove. There was the whole Trinity. So he was authorised from
heaven.

And then he was authorised by his miracles. God gave him power to
work those works which none could do but a Mediator. Therefore he saith,
* If you believe not me, yet believe me for my works' sake,' John x. 38.

He was authorised also by his resurrection, as the apostle saith, in Rom.
i. 4 : ' He mightily declared himself to be the Son of God by the resurrec-
tion from the dead.' The angels from heaven brought witness of him.
He M'as witnessed by all kind of persons on earth, yea, by the devils them-
selves. So he is ' sealed ' and authorised every way, by all kind of wit-
nesses, to be a mediator.

This is set out in other phrases in the Scripture. In Ps. ii. 7, ' This
my Son have I set upon my holy hill of Sion ; ' and Rom. iii., toward the
latter end, ver. 25 : ' Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation.' God
* That is, ■xa^a'/.TYiD, the ' express image.' — Ed.

FOE ETERNAL FOOD. 375

hath set him forth as the shewbread was set out under the law. And then
again in another place, * Whom he hath sent,' 1 John iv. 9, 10 ; and in
1 Cor. i. 30, ' He is made of God unto us wisdom,' &c. ' He is made of
God;' that is, he is ' sealed,' appointed, authorised by God for that purpose.
So you see why Christ is said to be sealed, especially because he is
authorised by God the Father, * made,' ' sent,' ' set forth,' ' whom the
Father hath sealed;' that is, the party offended by our sins, he hath sealed
and authorised Christ to be a mediator.

If this be so, let us learn this use of it, to bless God the Father as well
as Christ. ' Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ; ' and ' Blessed
be Christ,' for him hath the Father ' sealed' by the Spirit. The blessed
Trinity have all a hand in our salvation.

And then again consider, if we despise Christ, whom we despise. We
despise the Father that hath ' sealed' him. It is a weighty matter. Read
the second psalm, and you shall see there what it is to despise Christ, not
to ' kiss the Son ;' that is, when God hath anointed and sent forth a
Saviour, and ' sealed him,' and authorised him by all the testimonies that
can be, to be a mediator, not to receive him for our king, for our priest and
prophet. It is a rebellion, not against Christ only, but against the Father
who hath ' sealed ' him.

And likewise it serveth wonderfully to strengthen our ^faith when we go
to God for forgiveness of sins. Offer him his own broad seal, offer him
Christ as a mediator authorised by himself. Lord, I am thus and thus a
sinner, but notwithstanding, thou hast sent thy blessed Son and set him
forth to be a Saviour for me, and him I offer to thee. Thou canst not deny
or refuse thy own ' sealed ' Mediator and Redeemer. If he had been a
mediator of my own appointing and of my own sealing, it were another
matter ; but I offer thy own mediator, look on the death of him whom thou
hast ' sealed ' to be my intercessor. It is a wondrous prevailing argument
with God. He cannot deny that which he hath devised himself, him whom
he chose before all worlds for this great office.

But how shall I know whether he be * sealed ' for my good or no ? Saith
the soul that hears this, we hear much of an authorised Saviour, of an au-
thorised mediator to be all-sufficient, but what is that to me ?

Why ? For whom is he ' sealed ? ' Is he ' sealed ' for angels or for
men ? And amongst men is he ' sealed' for holy men or sinners ? * I
come not to seek or to save whole men, or men that never were lost,' Mat.
xviii. 11. No. He came to seek and to save men, but they are lost men,
sick men ; and it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all means to be em-
braced, ' that Christ came into the world to save sinners,' saith blessed
Paul, 1 Tim. i. 15. Therefore he is 'sealed' to save thee if thou art a
sinner, to save thee if thou wilt receive him ; and thou art bound to receive
him, under pain of the punishment of rebellion. Is it not rebellion not to
receive a magistrate whom the prince has authorised under his broad seal ?
It is another manner of matter not to receive Christ. It is a greater sin
than to sin against the law ; for if a man sin against the law there is the
gospel to help him, but if a man sin against the gospel there is not another
gospel to him. Now to refuse Christ offered in the gospel is a sin against
the gospel. Where then can there be hope of salvation ? Salvation itself
cannot save him that will not be saved, that refuses the remedy ' sealed '
by God the Father, the party offended. Who can heal him that casts down
the potion that is brought to heal him ? that refuseth the physician that
comes to cure him ? I say he is ' sealed ' to save thee if thou wilt be saved ;

376

THE FRUITFUL LABOUR

if thou wilt receive him ; receive him not only to be thy Saviour, but to be
thy king to rule thee, and thy prophet to teach and instruct thee, as we
shall see afterwards.

But, to clear this a little better, we must know that there are three dis-
tinct sealings.

There is God's sealing of Christ, which I have unfolded to you.

And there is our sealing of God ; that is, our sealing of God's truth.

And then again, there is God's sealing of us by his Spirit. And these
follow one the other.

Why hath God sealed Christ, but that we hereupon should be stirred up
to believe and to receive Christ, and so by consequence to seal, that God
is true in sending such a blessed Mediator, as St John saith, ' He that
believes in the Son hath set to his seal that God is true,' John iii. 33. God
hath sealed him, that we, by receiving him, should seal God's truth.

Beloved, God comes to us for our testimonials, for our hands and seals.
Oh how wondrously doth God condescend to weak man ! He hath sealed
Christ for the office of a mediator, and he offers him unto us, and he comes
to us likewise that we would set to our seals too, that Christ is the Son of
God. He counts it not sufficient that he hath sealed him himself, but he
will have us seal too ; and we seal him when we receive him. He that
receives him hath set to his seal that God is true. He that doth not
receive him, ' he makes God a liar,' saith St John, 1 John v. 10.

And what comes of this, when we receive Christ, and set to our seal that
God in the promise of salvation by Christ is true ? Then we having
honoured him, he honours us by his Spirit, as the apostle saith, Eph. i.
13, ' In whom, after ye believed, ye were sealed.' So when we believe and
set to our seal that God is true, God seals us by his Spirit ; ' after ye be-
lieved you were sealed.'

But what is this seal of the Spirit whereby God seals us after we believe ?

I answer, God seals us when he sets the stamp of his Spirit upon us ;
when the work and witness of his Spirit is wrought in us. For as in a
seal the wax hath all in it, the whole likeness of the image that is in the
seal, so the soul that is sealed by the Spirit hath the likeness of the
Spirit of Christ stamped on it. God imprints in their spirits the hkeness
of his Son ; that is to say, he makes them loving souls, humble souls, obe-
dient as Christ was in all things, patient, meek, &c. You may see in the
spirit of a believing man an expression of the spirit of Christ. So that if
you would see Christ in his excellencies, look on the spirit of a true Chris-
tian. There you shall see a resemblance of Christ Jesus, not perfectly, but
in some comfortable* measure. You shall see the very image of Christ.
You shall see how full of love he is, how patient in crosses, how humble,
how meek, how obedient to God in all things, both in a passive and active
obedience. This is the stamp of the Spirit ; when a man believes, God
honours him by setting his image on him.

And yet this is not all. Besides this, we are sealed with the witness and
comfort of the Spirit as well as with the work of the Spirit, the Spirit of
God sweetly witnessing that we are the sons of God. And this sweet wit-
ness of the Spirit especially comes after we have honoured God by believing
in temptation, when we are able to hold out and say as Job said, ' Though
he kill me, yet will I trust in him,' Job xiii. 15. So when we can, after
conflicts of doubting and despair, say, ' Though he kill me, yet will I trust
in him,' I will set to my seal that he is true. Well, will you so? God, to
* Qu. ' conformable ' ? — Ed.

FOR ETEENAL FOOD. 377

honour such a soul, seals him to the day of redemption ; that is, he gives
to the soul of such a one a sweet evidence and testimony that he is the Son
of God.

And this seal of the Spirit is double : not only done by the witness and
work of the Spirit inwardly, which I have shewed, but likewise the Spirit
doth seal them outwardly, enabling them to make an outward confession of
Christ and his truth ; and therefore, in Kev. vii. 3, seq., Christians are said
to be ' sealed in the forehead,' that is, as they are marked and singled out
in ill times, to be such as God hath set his special favour upon, so they
are ' sealed ' with a spirit of boldness, willingly and with forwardness to
confess the truth of Christ in ill times.

Now, to apply it to our purpose, wouldst thou know whether thou be
such a one, for the present, as for whom Christ is ' sealed' a mediator?
Examine, first of all, whether thou hast put to thy seal that God is true,
by receiving and believing Christ, and the promise of salvation through
him. If thou hast done so, then thou wilt find another seal from God, even
the work of the Spirit in sanctifying of thee, and conforming of thee to the
image and likeness of Christ ; and thou wilt find the witness and comfort-
able testimony of the Spirit, in telling thee that thou art the son of God ;
and withal thou wilt have a spirit of boldness, and readiness, and forward-
ness to confess Christ. Thou wilt not care for all that the worid saith ;
but wilt, if need be, stand to the profession of religion to the death.

If thou canst find this in thyself, undoubtedly thou art not only such a
one as Christ came to seal, but for the present thou mayest be assured that
thou hast interest in this mediator, sealed by God for that purpose.

Thus you see that here is ' food that endures to everlasting life,' which
is Christ and the benefits we have by him. You see that that blessed meat
is attainable, because he is willing to give it ; for he is become man for that
purpose. He is able to give it, for he is God as well as man, and he hath
authority to give it, for God the Father hath sealed him and fitted him for
that office. If we receive him, he will seal us with his blessed Spirit ; that
is, the same Spirit that furnished Christ with grace, that sanctified him in
the womb, will sanctify all those that are his members, will work a likeness
and conformity in them to his blessed image ; for the same Spirit that was
in the natural Son is in all the adopted sons of God. And he will hkewise
give us the comfortable evidence and assurance that we are the sons of
God, furnish us with boldness and resolution to profess Christ in all
times.

Let me then, I beseech you, come again to re-enforce this exhortation.
Take heed you refuse not Christ. Consider with what authority he comes.
* He is sealed.' It is no presumption therefore to receive him, though you
be never such sinners, to receive him ; I mean not only to be a priest to
reconcile you to God, but to be a king to rule you, and a prophet to instruct
you by his Spirit ; to receive him on this manner is no presumption. To
receive him indeed as a Saviour, but to neglect him as king, to refuse to
come under his government, is great presumption ; but to receive whole
Christ is obedience and faith, and no presumption ; nay, if you do not
receive him you sin damnably, you commit the greatest sin that can be.
He came to save all that will come under his blessed government, that will
kiss the Son. ' Whosoever will, let him come and drink of the waters of
life,' Rev. xxii. 17. All the good promised by Christ is promised upon our
receiving of him, upon the obedience of our faith. There is nothing
required but a will to embrace him, and to be under his government. There

378 THE FRUITFUL LABOUR

is no exception made of sins, or persons, or times. ' At what time soever
a sinner repent,' 1 Kings viii. 30, seq., whatsoever sinner, whatsoever
time, or whatsoever the sins be, if he repents, Christ is ready to receive him.

If you pretend your unworthiness and want of excellencies, he takes away
that objection. * Come unto me, all that are weary and heavy laden,' Mat.
xi. 28 ; ' Come, buy without money,' Isa. Iv. 1 ; and here in the text, * The
Son of man shall give ;' and what so free as gift ?

If you pretend you have sinned since your calling, and that you have
sinned against conscience and knowledge, and therefore now you have no
further hope of Christ, remember that Paul, 2 Cor. v. 20, speaks to the
Corinthians that were in the state of grace, ' I beseech you to be recon-
ciled to God ;' and in Jer. iii. 6, seq., ' Return again, you backsliding Israel,
and I will heal your backsliding ;' and again, ' Will a man receive a wife
that hath played the harlot, and broken the band of marriage ? Yet return,
house of Israel, and I will receive you.' Therefore run not away from
God. Though thou hast sinned after thou art in the state of grace, come
again, I beseech you. Still Christ is to be received ; the door of grace is
always held open, and the golden sceptre continually held out as long as we
live in this world.

But yet it is not good to neglect the time of grace. Eeceive Christ pre-
sently ; defer not to come under his government ; and receive him wholly, or
else there is no receiving of him at all.

|ft And to press this a little further ; I beseech you, consider that if you leave
not your sinful courses, and come under the blessed government of Christ,
if you receive not this ' sealed ' king, this ' sealed ' priest and prophet, this
' sealed ' mediator, whom God hath * sealed ' and sent unto you for salva-
tion, there is not anything in the world that will one day more torment you
than your refusal of him. Oh that we should ever live to hear of salvation
so freely offered, and of a Saviour so authorised, yet notwithstanding that
we should respect our sins more than our souls ! and because we could not
have him to be our Saviour except we came under his government and be
ruled by him as a king, we refused him wholly altogether. Indeed, if we
might have had salvation by him and the forgiveness of sins, and withal
have remained under the rule and sway of our own lusts, and been led by
them, we would have been contented to have had him ; but rather than we
would leave our blasphemous, our unclean, injurious, and covetous courses
of life, we were content to let Christ go if he would. Oh that we should
.reject this ' sealed ' Saviour ! Oh that we should refuse salvation offered
on such loving terms, when God was so loving as to seal and authorise his
Son ; when the Son was so loving as to give himself when he was ' sealed ;'
to refuse this and that for such base respects, will certainly one day, when
the conscience is wakened, prove the greatest torment that can be !

See how the apostle notably enforceth this in the second of the Hebrews,
ver. 3 : ' If so be they did not escape that despised Moses' law, how shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation ?' He doth not say. How shall
we escape if we oppose Christ, if we rail on him, if we despise his image
in his children, as many cursed wretches do ? but. How shall we escape if we
do but ' neglect so great salvation,' so witnessed and authorised with all the
signs, so offered and tendered with all the terms of love that may be ?

And therefore, if there be any here that have lived in sinful courses, and
have a purpose to break them off, that are weary of the government of their
lusts, and of Satan that rules them by their lusts, — for all are under one
government or other, either under the * sealed' government of Christ, or

FOR ETERNAIi FOOD. 379

under the base government of Satan that tends to damnation, — Oh leave
it, and come under this governor ' sealed' by God the Father, authorised
from heaven by the blessed Trinity, by miracles, and by all the arguments
that can be ; come under his blessed government and you shall do well.
God the Father, the party offended with your sins, he hath ' sealed' him ;
and he cannot refuse a mediator of his own sealing.

And do not say your sins have been thus and thus ; for consider what
were these parties that he offers himself to here, that he saith to, ' Labour
for the meat that endures to everlasting life.' Were they not cursed hypo-
crites, that followed him for the loaves, and yet he saith to them, ' Labour
for the meat that endures,' &c. I am ' sealed' even for your salvation, if
you will come out of your hypocrisy and be ruled by me. Therefore let
none stand out from coming under the government of Christ, for he offers
mercy, you see here, to the worst of men, even to cursed hypocrites.
1^ ' And, to conclude with a word of comfort, if there be any poor distressed
soul frighted in conscience with the sight of his sins and Satan's temptations,
Oh let such consider the love of God in Christ. Satan pictures out God
as a terrible judge; and so he is indeed to men that go on in their sins, ' a
consuming fire.' But art thou weary of thy courses ? art thou willing to
come under a better covenant ? Let not Satan abuse thee by setting God
before thee as a terrible judge, and Christ as one that would not save thee.
No. Come in, kiss the Son, ' for him hath the Father sealed,' ' sealed'
for thee if thou be weary of thy sins. Enforce not upon thy soul any
unwillingness to be in God. Wherefore doth God stoop so low, and labour
by all these arguments here, as that Christ is the Son of man, and that he
shall give it you, and that the Father hath sealed him for that end ; where-
fore is all this, but to shew his willingness to receive thee ? Wherefore
hath the Father ' sealed' Christ but in love to thee ? Come in, therefore,
and then, if you will seal to his truth, if you will believe and cast yourselves
on God's gracious promise, even against doubting and distrust, you shall
find God sealing you by his Spirit ; you shall find his Spirit witnessing to
your spirits that you are the ' sons of God.'

Here then you see is sure footing for poor doubting souls to fasten upon.
God the Father, the party offended, hath ' sealed' his Son ; hath authorised
him to save thee, if thou repent and come in. What are all thy sins and
unworthiness to Christ, God-man, * sealed' and authorised by the Father,
who is the party offended ? If thou art willing to come in, bring all thy
sins and oppose them to Christ, God-man, ' sealed' by the Father, and they
will vanish as a cloud. But, as I said before, if thou wilt not come in and
accept of this Saviour, if thou wilt not submit thyself to his government,
thou sealest thy damnation.

Thus you see I have unfolded this blessed portion of Scripture. Christ
Jesus, and all the prerogatives and benefits that come by him, is the food
that endureth to everlasting life. You see the arguments our blessed
Saviour useth to enforce us to labour after this food. It is ' food.' It is
food that ' endures,' and it is food that ' endures to everlasting life ;' and
he ' will give it,' for ' him the Father hath sealed' and authorised so to do.
He is both the gift and the giver ; both the food and the inviter to the
food ; both the priest and the sacrifice. Labour therefore after this food.

There is an objection which I will briefly answer, and so end.

Labour after it. Why ? Christ will give it ; if he will give it, why
must we labour after it ? And if we must labour for it, how doth he give
it ? How can these two, gift and labour, stand together ?

380

THE FRUITFUL LABOUR

I answer, Very well ; Christ will give himself, and forgiveness of sins, and
life everlasting, and yet we must labour too. But we must know for what
we must labour. We must not labour for any merit to the title unto
heaven and happiness. Christ indeed gives that. But labour in the use
of all good means to get knowledge and faith to receive this gift, to get the
knowledge of Christ, what he is in his natures and offices, what he hath
promised, what he hath done and what he hath suffered, what the intent of
the gospel is ; what the giver is ; and what the authority is, that his Father
hath given him. This requires labour. It is a labour to crack the shell,
to understand the letter of the Scripture ; to know what the gift and what
the giver is. And it is likewise a labour to get faith to receive this gift ;
to get the soul emptied of all self-confidence ; of all worth in itself and in
the creature ; for Christ must be received with a beggar's hand ; and it
will ask much labour to deny a man's self; for proud flesh will always
have somewhat to trust to either in itself or in the creature.

So that these two may well stand together, labour and gift. We are
taught to pray, ' Give us this day our daily bread.' God will give us our
daily bread. We must not therefore stand still and do nothing ; but
though God will give it, yet he will give it in the use of means, in the use
of our lawful callings. So here, God will give us this spiritual food ; yet
he will give it in labour. It is his ordinance ; and whatsoever he gives,
he gives not in idleness, but in obedience to his ordinance. He will have
us to labour in the use of the means, in reading, hearing, receiving the
sacrament, praying, meditating, and the like, to have a part in Christ this
blessed gift. Nay, because he will give Christ, therefore labour. The one
enforceth the other. The like reason Moses giveth the Israelites : ' Fight,'
saith he, ' for the Lord hath given them into your hand,' Joshua x. 19.
They might say. If our enemies be given into our hand, why should we
fight ? Yes ; fight the rather, be encouraged to fight, because you shall
be sure to conquer. So here, ' Labour for the meat that endures to ever-
lasting life, for the Son of man will give it.' Therefore labour, because he
will give it. In labouring we shall be sure to have it ; do that which be-
longs to thee, and thou shalt be sure to have that which belongs to God ;
thou shalt find Christ, and heaven, and glory, and all in the use of the
means. But he gives nothing without labour. There can be no good
done in earthly things without labour ; and do yon think to have heaven
without labour ? No. Spiritual things are against the stream. Heaven
is up the hill. There must be labour, there must be striving against cor-
ruptions within, and against temptations without ; and our labour it is a
happy labour. It is not a barren labour ; ' Our labour is not in vain in the
Lord,' as the apostle saith, 1 Cor. xv. 58. We that labour for the food
that endures to everlasting life, we labour for somewhat ; but worldlings
that beat their brains, and tire their spirits, and rack their consciences, and
wear out their bodies, it is all for nothing ; it is for that which is * vanity
and vexation of spirit,' Eccles. i. 14 ; for that which they must leave be-
hind them. A true Christian, to encourage him to take all the pains that
may be, he labours for something ; it is a hopeful and not a barren labour.
And, beloved, blessed are we that we can have this food for our labour ;
that since the fall we can recover by the ' second Adam ' a better estate
than we had by the first.

And our blessed Saviour, to the end he might distinguish true Christians
from hypocrites, enjoins this duty of labouring so much the more ; for we
have many in the church that think to have Christ and his benefits without

FOR ETERNAL FOOD. 381

labour, as if heaven would drop into their mouths. They can say that God
is merciful, and Christ died for us ; but you shall in the mean time find
them careless of reading, of hearing, of praying, of the communion of
saints, &c., are idle in working out their salvation with fear and trembling,
negligent in selling all that they have for the pearl, will part with nothing
for Christ. I say, to distinguish these hypocrites from true Christians,
therefore he saith, ' Labour,' to shew to us that only they that labour for
Christ in the use of all good means ; that labour for the true knowledge of
him, and for faith to receive him ; that sell all for him ; that take pains to
grow in grace and in union with Christ ; that make him their best portion
in the world, and delight in him : it is they only that have interest in
Christ ; only the painful* Christian is the true Chiistian.

Therefore, I beseech you, as you would have it discerned that you are
not hypocrites in the church, be stirred up to use all sanctified means to
know Christ, to beheve in him, to know that you are in communion with
him, that you belong unto him. Be not discouraged. You shall have
rest ere long. ' There is a rest for the people of God,' as the apostle saith
to the Hebrews, Heb. iv. 9. Indeed, so long as we are here below, there
is labour joined with weariness ; for we have great conflicts with corrup-
tions and temptations, with enemies within and enemies without ; but be
of good comfort, we shall at last come to a rest, to a rest perpetual and
everlasting. It is true, in heaven there shall be labour, for we shall be
alway praising God ; but it shall be labour without weariness, labour with-
out conflict. There shall be no corruption within, nor no devil without.
Satan could enter into paradise below, but he shall never enter into that
heavenly paradise. Therefore be encouraged to labour for a while. Though
it be tedious, because of corruptions and temptations, ' yet there is a rest
for the people of God, an eternal rest.

* That is, ' painstaking.' — G.

(a) P. 366. — ' Especially are we to make daily use of the death of Christ ; for
howsoever the death of Christ be transient in respect of the act of it, as one of the
ancients saith ; yet . . . .' The thought is common to Bernard and Augustine,

(6) P. 870. — ' Taste is the most necessary sense of all, saith a wise searcher of the
mysteries of nature; our life is maintained by taste.' Query, Bacon?

(c) P. 373. — ' All . . . depends ... as Saint Austin saith, for now . . .' This
great fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith, is constantly dwelt upon through-
out the works of Augustine. G.

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING.

NOTE.

' The Matchless Love and Inbeing ' appeared in the first edition of The Saint's
Cordials, 1629. It will be observed from the full recapitulation in the commence-
ment of the first of these sermons, that the two so designated formed part of a series,
expository, in all probability, of the whole chapter. These not having been preserved,
accounts perhaps for the withdrawal of ' The Matchless Love and In-Being' from
the after editions, of 1637 and 1658, of the ' Cordials.' The title-page will be found
below.* G.

* THE

MATCHLES LOVE,

AND IN-BEING.

In two Sermons.

Wherein is shewed,
' That we may be Assured of Gods loue vnto vs :

Ilelpes for Weake Christians how to attaine vnto this loue :

Helps how to know that we haue it in vs :
• That Christ is in all beleeuers :

How to know that Christ is in vs :
I How in a seeming absence he is discouered to be in the Soule :
1^ How to keepe Christ there, and how to recouer him being lost, &c.

[Woodcut here, as described in Vol. IV. page 60.]

Vpkightnes Hath Boldnes.

Ephes. 3. 17, 18, 19.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts hy Faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in loue.
May be able to comprehend with all Saints, what is the bredth and length, and depth

and height :
And to know the loue of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with
all the fulnesse of God.

LONDON,
Printed in the yeare 1629.

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AlfD INBEING.

SEEMON I.

/ have declared unto them thy name, and I idll declare it ; that the love where-
with thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. — John XVII. 26.

The dependence we have heard heretofore, when I entered upon the first
part of this verse. Our Saviour intending to have committed his disciples
to the love of his Father, that they might he the fitter ohjects of his love,
he sets down here his own care for the present, and for the time to come ;
for it is hypocrisy in prayer when we pray for that that we endeavour not.
For as he prays the Father to take them into his charge, so he sets down
his own care about them : ' I have manifested thy name, and I will,' &c.
The verse contains this blessed act of Christ.

1. What he hath done.

2. What he will do.

3. The end of it.

' I have declared thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith
thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.' * I have declared,
and willdeclare/ This I unfolded at large the last day. Among many
other things, this one I observed, that ice are in a perpetual iirojicwncij in
this life. We never know so much, but we may know more, and we ought
to know more. So that by consequence there is a perpetual necessity of
Christ's prophetical office. ' I have declared, and I will declare,' &c. We
see the church in general r/rcw to hwniedge hij degrees, till Christ, the Sun
of righteousness, came gloriously in the flesh ; tilf John pointed at him with
the finger,' This is the Lamb of God,' &c., John i. 29. And as the whole
body mystical, so every member ; we grow to knowledge by degrees. ' I
have declared,' &c. Christ doth fit his work to our exigents. We need
further knowledge, and he is bountiful to promise a further declaration.
1 1 have, and I will.' He is never weary of well-doing. As his love is
infinite, so his expression is unwearied that comes from his love. A ground
of special comfort, as we shewed, to all Christians, especially to the labouring,
weak Christians, that their beginnings are pledges of further degrees. For
Christ, where he is Alpha, he will be Omega ; and where he is the author,
he will be the finisher of our faith ; where he hath laid the first stone, he
will set up the roof at length. * He hath declared, and he will declare.'

VOL. VI. B b

886 THE MATCHLESS LO"V^ AND INEEING.

He ia not sucli an unwise builder as will leave his work. ' He knows what
he can do, and therefore we may enter upon all the means of saving know-
ledge, with this confidence, that we have a teacher that will carry us along
from one degree of knowledge to another. And let us never despair for any
insufficiency of parts. It is no matter ivhat the capacitij or the incapacity of
the scholar be, ivhen there is such a teacher. When God is the teacher, it is
no matter how dull the learner is, for Christ doth not only bring doctrine,
but he brings wut, grace, and ability to the inward man ; that is, not only
a declaration, as man doth teach the outward man, but he unlocks and
opens the heart, the ears of the inward man, as he opened Lydia's heart,
&c.. Acts xvi. 14. Let none distrust if they be conscionable* and careful
in the use of good means. Many other things, I observed hence, which I
will not be large in unfolding. ' I have declared to them thy name,' &c. ;
that is, that whereby thou mightest be known. Now in the covenant of
grace, God would be known by the sweet name of Father, by the attributes
of mercy and love. That whereby he will be known is his name, his mercy
in the covenant of grace in condescending to be our Father in Jesus Christ,
together with the sweet attributes of love and mercy, from whence all
spring. This is his name. Now he will not be known only to be the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; the God that brought them out of the land
of Egypt, or out of the North ; but he will be known by the name of ' the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' and our Father ; to be the Father of
mercy, and the God of all comfort. Thus we must labour to present God
to us now in his right name. This name makes all other names sweet
that he hath. For being once gracious and merciful, and a Father in
covenant, his power is ours, his wisdom is ours, and all is ours. Then this
name of God is set forth at large : ' Jehovah, Jehovah, merciful, forgiving
iniquity,' &c., Exod. xxxiv. 7. ' I have declared thy name,' &c. But this I
stood at large on.

What was the end of our blessed Saviour in this his gracious dealing ?
' That the love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them, and I in them.'
In unfolding of which words, I propounded these general heads, to omit
other things. First, That God doth love Christ, because he is the first object
of his love, his own image ; for he represents God's attributes, and whatsoever
is good in him, every way exactly. He is the Jedidiah, the beloved of the
Lord. He is the true Isaac, the true matter of joy. He is the first Son,
the first beloved. This was the first thing we unfolded and made use of.
The second was this. That after Christ, God loves all that are Christ's with
that love wherewith he loves Christ. There is a former love, indeed, of God,
to give us unto Christ ; but I speak of the carriage of our salvation, all
which is in Christ. He loves Christ, and he loves us in Christ, and not
otherwise. There is a love that moved him to give Christ, but this love
must concur with the other attributes. It must be such love and mercy,
and so apprehended, as must be without ofi"ering violence or wrong to other
attributes. His justice and his holiness must not be wronged. And there-
fore though he bare love to those whom he knew before all worlds ; yet
in the carriage of salvation he intended actually so to set his love upon
them, as that it should be in one that should make satisfaction for them,
being considered as sinners in themselves. And God would have, in our
salvation, the glory, as of infinite love to man, so of infinite hatred of sin,
and likewise of infinite wisdom, in reconciling these together. His infinite
hatred to sin, how could he shew it more, than that rather than he would
* That is, ' conscientious.' — G.

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INEEING. 387

not have it punished, his Son must become incarnate, to be a surety for
em and to take it away ? How could he shew his infinite love more than
by giving such a gift as Christ, and his infinite wisdom, than to devise such
a way as to bring these two together, justice and love, to reconcile them 9
bo though God loved a certain company whom he foreknew to everlasting
lite, jet he intended, in the carriage of their salvation, to do it with the
manifestation and glory of his attributes, that no attribute might be wronged
nor complain, and that justice might fully be satisfied ; but especially that
his mercy and love might triumph. For what in God stirred up a fatherly
heart ? What stirred him up to reconcile justice and mercy, but love, that
set on work all other attributes, his mercy, and love, and goodness ? God
loves us in Christ therefore, and only in Christ ; because in Christ only
his wrath is satisfied. Christ only is the mediator, the only treasury of
the church to convey all to us. The adopted sons have their excellency,
and all that they have, in the virtue of the natural Son. But this I have
unfolded at large heretofore, and shewed the use of it last day ; this was
the second thing.

The third general thing out of the text is this, that the love of God to
vs IS in Christ, lovincj us in him, as electing m, and doing all good to us in
him. It is the ground of all other favours and graces whatsoever. And
therefore he sets it here for all in all, ' I have declared, &c., that the love
wherewith thou lovest me may be in them,' &c. What ! doth he not say,
that I might be merciful to them and pitiful, and that they may have
other graces that love me ? What needs all this ? He sets down the
spring of all, ' I have manifested thy name,' thy gracious name, that in the
apprehension of that they may find my love. And so, when we feel the
love of God and of Christ, know that all other graces flow from thence ;
for indeed all graces wrought in us issue from God's love to us first!
Whence comes pity, and mercy, and love, but from God's shining in our
hearts first by his love, that doth mould and frame the heart to all duties
and graces whatsoever, and to the first grace to love God ? For how can
we love him unless we have an apprehension of his love first ? You know-
iron, and stones, and things that are cold of nature, if they have any heat,
we say it is the sun that hath heated them, or the fire that hath warmed
them, because intrinsecally they have no heat. So when there is any good-
ness in the creature, any pity, mercy, or love to God, or to those that are
his, it implies, that there hath been first the fire, the light of God's love
to us. And therefore, saith Christ, ' I have manifested thy name to them,
that thy love may be in them.' This love in them will be enough to set
them on fire on all good things whatsoever. ' We love him, because he
loves us first,' 1 John iv. 19. We know him, because he knows us first,
Gal iv. 9, and we choose him, because he chooseth us first. We joy and
delight in him, because he joys and delights in us first. All is a reflex
from him, whatsoever of good comes from us. This was the third thing.
We made thence use of it, and so brake ofi". To go on. The fourth thing
which I propounded to speak of out of the words is this, that this love of
God to us may he knoivn, and ought to be kiioivn of us.

It may be known with an experimental and with an applicatory know-
ledge. The next was, that the ivay to hioiv God's love to us, is the mani-
festing of his name in the gospel : that follows by the connection of them
two together; and the last is, Christ being in us, which I cannot come to
at this time. So then now, to clear this point, that ive may, and it is our
duty to do it, to labour to know God's love to us. We ought to labour that

388 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING.

God's love may be in us, and that we may know it, not generally that he
loves us, but that his love is in us, that it is incorporate and invested into
us, to have a taste and be sensible of it. For this is the end of Christ's
prayer, * That the love wherewith thou lovest me ma}'^ be in them,' &c.
And the next way to know it, which we shall speak of at this time among
the rest, it is this, ' The manifesting of God's name by Christ.' For the
first then.

Doct. 1. That we may, and ought to hnow God's love to us in Christ.
That we ought to know it ; what need I be large in the point ? I will not,
because it is so clear. For if it be, as I shewed the last day at large, the
spring of all duties, of all other graces, which sets all on work, then surely
we ought to labour for that which may make us good, and not only good,
but comfortable. Now all our goodness, and comfort, it comes from this
original, the knowledge of God's love to us, when that is in us, for we have
no love to him until we know that we are beloved of him.

1. We cannot be thankful to God till ive know that he loves ns in Christ.
I speak of his peculiar love as a child. Who can be thankful for that
which he knows not ? It overthrows all thankfulness and denies it. We
ought to labour for the assurance of the love of God in Christ. For it is
a duty to joy in the Lord as our portion. Now we must be certain of his
love first. How else can we practise this duty of rejoicing in the Lord
alway ? What joy and cheerfulness can come without the love of God
shining upon us and enlarging our hearts to joy ? As the shining of the
sun enlargeth the spirit of the poor creatures, the birds, in the spring time,
to sing, so proportionably the apprehension of the sweet love of God in
Christ enlargeth the spirit of a man, and makes him full of joy and thanks-
giving. He breaks forth into joy, so that his whole life is matter of joy
and thanksgiving.

2. Again, In suffering any cross, any opposition, who udll endure to lose
his temporal goods, his life and liberty, to be restrained any way, that knows
not God's love ? Who will abide anything for him that he loves not ?
What doth set us to suffer all things that may be for God ? The appre-
hension that he loves us. What makes a man willing to end his life, and
to yield up his soul to God ? He knows he shall yield his soul to him as
to a father that loves him, that will save his soul. Can a man be willing
to leave his home here, when he knows not whether he shall have a better
or no ? Can a man commend his soul to one that he knows not to be his
friend ? No. Can he commend such a jewel to one that he knows hot
but to be an enemy ? Can he say with Simeon, ' Lord, let thy servant
depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation'? Luke ii. 29.
Doth not all joy and comfort come from the love of God in Christ? What
should I enlarge the point? We can neither have grace, nor joy, nor
suffer anything with thankfulness, nor end our days with joy and comfort,
till we get assurance that we are in the covenant of grace, and that God's
love is in us.

And therefore it is clear to anybody that knows anything in religion, or
desires anything, that we ought to labour that God's love may be in us.
I beseech you, therefore, make use of it to see the abominable doctrine of
popery — I cannot speak too hardly of it — which teacheth that we ought to
doubt of God's love. It cuts the sinews of endeavour. Who will endea-
vour after the attaining of the love of God, and this assurance, when this
is laid in the way, that we ought not to do it ? Are we not prone enough
to distrust, but we must be taught it ? Is not Satan malicious enough,

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 389

but we must light a candle to liim, and arm his malice with this doctrine,
that we ought to doubt ? He is the master of doubtings ; for the works
of darkness, and all the discomfort and sin that he brings on us is in dark-
ness, in this particular darkness, that we know not whether we be the
children of God or no. And therefore, say some, why should we leave our
gain, our profit, and our present pleasures that we have ? And what doth
he aim at by the sins he tempts us to, but to shake our assurance of God's
love ? Well, they teach the doctrine of devils in divers things, amongst
which this is one that strengthens the kingdom of Satan much, that people
ought to doubt, and that there is no way or means to get assurance of God's
love. This is to overthrow the intent of Christ's prayer. Wherefore doth
he pray here, and what doth he promise in his prayer ? That God would
she\v them his love, and that he may do it: 'I have declared thy love,' &c.
So it is clear that we ought to answer Christ's aim. Why doth Christ
declare his Father's name ? And why are all the means of salvation, but
that we may have God's love in us ? Is it not our duty, then, to answer
Christ's course, and his promise, and his love ? Taking that, then, for a
ground, that we ought to labour to have God's love to be in us, we will shew
that we may attain to it, and come to know that God loves us. I will not
be long in it, it is a clear point, which heretofore, upon another occasion,
I have spoken of.

We may attain to it. Here is the way, as I shall shew in the nest point,
' By the declaration of God's name.' For what is faith, which is the work
of the gospel and grace of the new covenant, but the apprehension of the
love of God in Christ ? It is nothing else ; and therefore we may attain
to it in the covenant of grace. Faith is nothing but the act whereby we
apprehend this effectual love of God to us in Christ. Therefore we that
are Christians may attain to it, because we have the Spirit of God, which
* searcheth the deep things of God,' 1 Cor. iii. 10. Our spirit knows what
is in us, and God's Spirit knows what is in God, and we have the Spirit of
God to shew us the things of God, and all the benefits and fruits of his
love, with the affection itself. The Spirit searcheth the deep things of God,
as it is in 1 Cor. ii. 10. It is a point I have heretofore followed at large.
A Christian in the covenant of grace, he knows that God loves him. There
is no truth in the world so illustrious, so gloriously and apparently* true,
as this. Would you have a better pledge of his love than Jesus Christ,
the Son of his love, to be given for us, the dearest thing that God hath ?
He would not have us doubt of his love that hath given such an invaluable
thing as his own Son to assure us of it, besides all that comes from this ;
for if he have given him once, he gives all things with him. He that hath
given us his Son for our Kedeemer and Saviour, he gives us heaven for our
inheritance, and his Spirit for our conduct, guide, and sanctifier, Rom.
viii. 32. He hath given angels for our attendants. He gives us peace,
and joy, and all things. In Christ, we have all. But here, because it is
a main point, I will enlarge myself a little, and speak as familiarly as I can
to every conscience.

Quest. 1. How shall a sinner, that is not yet converted, be persuaded of
God's love to him ?

Quest. 2. And how shall we, in the time of temptation, deal with sinners

in the state of grace ? I speak of the ordinary course, how a Christian may

be persuaded of it. For the first, which is, how those that are unconverted

may be drawn to the sense of the love of God, to find that they have any

* That is, ' manifestly.' — G.

890 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING.

portion in it at all, that they may have it for the time to come, though they
feel not yet any goodness in them.

Ans. 1. I answer, We must draw them to a sense that they are not yet in
the love of God, by those things, that their corruptions suggest to them to mea-
sure the love of God hij. As, for example, you have a company that think
their case is good, because God hath given them outward blessings, and
accompanies his blessings with patience and long-suffering ; gives them
parts and gifts, and preferments in the church ; gives them place, great
estimation, and such things. Hereupon they begin to reason. Certainly
God is in love with me ; though, if a man should search their lives and
examine them, you shall find that there is no act, no evidence of God's
special love to them at all. Such, therefore, must be convinced, that they
must not measure God's love by these things ; that that which is common
to castaways cannot be a character and sign of God's love ; but these things
are common to castaways. Did Abraham give Ishmael, and the rest of
his children, moveable things ? but Isaac had the inheritance. Gen. xxv. 6,
seq. Esau had his portion in the things of this life, but Jacob goes away
with the blessing. The blessings of the left hand, castaways and repro-
bates may have in abundant measure. God fills their bellies with abun-
dance of outward things, whose hearts he never fills with his love, as in
Dives, Luke xvi. 25. Not to enlarge myself, look on such instances.
What tend they to, but to shew that these outward things are no evidences
of God's love ? and for God's patience in enduring me in such a state as I
am in, that is no argument. For God in his patience endures the vessels
of wrath, who treasure up * wrath against the day of wrath,' Rom. ii. 4, 5,
God suffering them to prolong their days in judgment, that so he may pour
the full vials of his wrath upon them. He suffers them, to lead them unto
repentance ; and they, not making a right use of it, God after justifies his
vengeance and judgment the more, when he pours it upon them, so that
plenty in outward things, accompanied with patience, is no true sign of
God's love.

Like think of parts and gifts. Had not Judas excellent parts ? Nay,
the devil himself, who comes near him in the depth of understanding and
policy ? &c. Judas had a place in the church, he was an apostle. And
for gifts, Ahithophel and Saul had gifts of government. All these are no
evidences of the love of God to be in us as yet, or that he hath any interest
in us. The way, therefore, to bring those that have not the love of God
to love God, is to shew them their vain confidence, that they trust to a
broken reed, and to that wdiich in the time of sickness, the hour of death,
and the day of judgment, will deceive them, seeing they trust unto a cracked
title. Well, if the consciences of such as are not yet in the state of grace
be once awaked, we may thus draw them to be within the compass of the
love of God. Otherwise, when they see the vanities of other things, and
likewise that there is sin in them, somewhat that lays them open to the
wrath of God, then Satan will help their conscience, Satan and their con-
science will tell them ofttimes all, and make them reason. As for such a
wretch as I, there is no hope ; I had as good go on in a sinful course, and
have somewhat in this world, as to want heaven and the comforts of this
life too. And so Satan keeps them in darkness, because they think it is to
no purpose to go about another course, and that it is impossible they should
come to assurance. Such kind of conceits he hath.

But we must know, that in the covenant of grace now in the gospel, this
is not put as a bar of God's love, that I am a sinner, that I have committed

THE MATOHLESS LOVE AND INEEING. 891

any degree of sin whatsoever. None are shut out but those that will be as
they are. And therefore all objections are taken away in the promulgation
ot the gospel Ay, but I am guilty, and Oh, I am laden with sin ! ' Be
ot good comfort, thou art called, thou art the man. Come unto me all
ye that ai-e weary and heavy laden,' Mat. xi. 28. Oh that I mi^ht find
mercy, says one._ Why, 'Blessed are the hungry and thirsty; blessed are
the poor m spmt ; blessed are the mourners,' Mat. v. 3, 4 • and ' Ho
every one that thirsteth, come,' Isa. Iv. 1. There is hope for'thee. He
J^eeps open house for every one. He shuts out none but those that shut
out themselves, that think these things are too good to be true, and there-
lore will enjoy their pleasures, and go on still and daub with their con-
science But if their hearts be awakened, if they will go to God and cast
themselves upon his mercy, whosoever is weary, whosoever is athirst, who-
soever is heavy laden, God is no accepter of persons, but at ' what time
soever any sinner whatsoever repents of any sin whatsoever,' God will
shew mercy if he come in and accept of the proclamation of pardon,
±izek. xvin. 22. If he come in, and will not continue in his rebellion still,
but cast himself upon his mercy, and resign, and yield himself to God and
to Christ s government, to be ruled by him, as a subject should be, he shall
tnd mercy. Let the devil, therefore, keep none in bondage, in the dun-
geon of Ignorance and unbelief, for the end of the gospel is to brin^ in all
such, if they will. ^

But to come more particularly to such as have true goodness in them,
and yet the devil takes all advantages to hinder the apprehension of God's
love to them in Christ.

Quest. 2. How shall we in divers states and cases bring men to be ]jersuaded
of God s love in Christ, when conscience and Satan, tor/ether ivith some out-
ward occurrents, urge them to unbelief and to stagger ?

For instance, a sinner that is converted and in the state of grace, he
may ofttimes fall into some great sin ; hereupon Satan, taking advantage of
the sm, together with conscience, which always helps Satan in this case,
speaks bitter things.

Ans. 1. Thus we must answer such as are drawn by Satan to sin, and after
accused by Satan for sin, and to whom God is presented as a hateful God,
&c., that notuithstanding they should not be discouraged. We have many
examples in Scripture : ' If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Christ Jesus,' &c., 1 John ii. 1 ; and he is the propitiation for our sins.
We ought not, therefore, to be discouraged from going to God, humbled as
we ought to be. Here is place for humihation, but there is no place for
base discouragement, and calling God's love into question. A son under
anger is a son ; and therefore, though Satan presents to him an angry God
for sin— for this temptation is then sharpened indeed, when it is^made a
weapon by Satan, by reason that God accompanies the sinner that is fallen
into sin, with some judgment as a punishment— yet he ought to lay hold on
the rich mercies of God in Christ. What should he else do ? Shall he
run away from God ? No. A bastard, a slave, will do so ; but he runs to
God. Even as a child, when he hath offended his father, doth not run
away from him ; but, knowing that his father is merciful and loving,
though he have offended him, and that he is now a son, though under his
wrath, he goes and studies to appease his father, casts himself upon his
favour and mercy, and will endure his correction gently. Thus ought we
to do. Satan, when he hath gotten us to sin, he saith. Now you had as
good run on still, for God follows you with judgments ; you have offended

392 ' THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING.

God, and there is no hope for you. So he keeps us without comfort, and
God without service, hy that means ; whereby we run deeper and deeper
into God's books. Oh come in betimes, and repent. It will be easier.
Thy comfort will be stronger. God will be sooner pacified. Thy heart
will not be so hardened. Do not call in question God's love to thee ; for
Satan tempts, and corrupts, and draws thee to sin, for that end, to call it in
question. God may love thee, though he follow thee with shows of anger ;
for he may be angry, and yet love thee too, as we shall see afterwards.

Ans. 2. Again, Satan doth use as a weapon, to shake our sonship or
adoption, and our estate in God's love, manifold temptations and crosses,
and such like, to discourage us. He comes with ' If.' ' If thou wert in
the love of God, and the love of God in thee, and did belong to thee any
way, would God follow thee thus and thus, with these declarations of wrath
and anger ?'

I answer, A man may retort that upon Satan the tempter, and upon his
own heart. The spirit retorts that upon the flesh : ' God corrects every
son, and he is a bastard that hath not correction,' Heb. xii. 8. In this
world, to thrive in a course of sin, when a man hath oftended God, it is a
sign of reprobation rather than otherwise. Every child God corrects ; and
for poverty, shame, and the like, we must not measure God's love by these,
for God loves us as he loved Christ. Mark here Christ's prayer : ' That
the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.'

Quest. How was God's love in Christ ? To fence him from poverty,
from disgrace, from persecution, from the sense of God's wrath ? No.
But the first-begotten Son, the natural Son, he was persecuted as soon as
he was born ; he was disgraced, calumniated, slandered, and abused to
the death. Nay, and he felt the wrath of God. ' My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me ? ' Mat. xxvii. 46. We then may be in the love of
God if we be no otherwise than the natural Son was, in whom the love of
God was when he was at the worst. In the lowest degree of his abase-
ment, God loved him then as much as at any other time, even when he
was accompanied with the sense of the wrath of God. And therefore reject
and beat back all temptations with this invincible argument, It is no other-
wise with me than it was with his natural Son. Shall I desire to be loved
any otherwise of God than Christ was loved ? His love to Christ did not
exempt him from slander, from disgrace, from abasement, from the sense
of his Avrath, when yet he was the Son of God always ; and I, being in this
case, shall I doubt of my adoption ? Shall I dishonour God ? Shall I
add this sin to the rest of my sins ?

Satan is wonderful prone to take these weapons, to sharpen them, as I
said before, of sin, desertions, sometime of temptations and outward afilic-
tions; and so he comes with his ' If,' ' If thou wert the Son of God, would
he deal thus and thus with thee?' It was alway his course. We must
therefore have present, to repel all such temptations, that God loves us as
he loves his Son, that he chastiseth every son ; and that God's love is not
always and only manifested in exempting of us from these things. Let us
measure God's love that he bears to us in Christ, by the best fruits of his
love. What are those ? An heart to seek him ; to fear his name ; love
to his majesty ; love to his children ; delight in good things ; hatred of
that which is evil. None but his can esteem and value his love by these
things. By these therefore, and the like peculiar marks and stamps of the
Spirit that are in us, let us judge of his love, and not by any outward thing
whatsoever ; for all outward crosses whatsoever befell his own Son. And

THE MATCHLESS L0^^ AND INBEING. 393

can we desire that he should love ns otherwise than he loved him ? We
are predestinate to be conformable unto him, Eom. viii. 29, and Avhy should
we refuse to be conformable to him in abasement, with whom we hope to
be conformable in glory ? Let faith therefore plead against all the sugges-
tions of Sman and accusations of conscience. By faith in the word of'^God
persuade we ourselves that we are in the love of God. If we find any
evidences of his love in our spirits, we shall come to them by and by. But,
first, I will name one or two directions how we may come to have God's
love in us, and how to know that his love is in us.

1. We may come to have his love in us, if ice be careful to j^reserve our-
selves under the means of salvation, and if so ve do jyresent God to ourselves,
as he is j^rescnted in our glorious gospel. When we are convinced of sin
first (I speak of such as are convinced thoroughly of a sinful state, such may
come to the knowledge of God's love in Christ by the gospel, and by pre-
senting God to their souls as he is presented in the gospel, to be the Father
of mercy and the Father of Christ. The devil he puts other colours upon
God : he presents him as a tyrant, as a judge, as a revenger, as one that
hates him.

2. Again, Labour to he such as God may lore i(s. God loves his own
image. ^ Wherefore doth he love Christ, but because he perfectly repre-
sents him?^ If we would come to have God's love in us, beg of him, that
by his Spirit he would stamp his likeness in us ; that as he is light, we
may be Hght ; as he is love, so we may have love ; as he is pitiful^ so we
may have our hearts enlarged ; as he is free in love, so we may be free in
love ; and that we may be holy, as he is holy ; that as he hates sin, so
we mayhate it; that we may joy in him, afiect what he doth afi"ect, hate
that which he hates ; that so he may look upon us, as his own image, and
delight in us, as the representation of his own likeness.

3. Again, We may come to have God's love, by more and more sequester-
i?ig ourselves and our affections from conformity tvith his enemies ; for this
helps the other. If we would be like to God, and so come to have him
delight and solace himself in us, we must withal labour to be unlike the
world and wicked persons, that are yet in the state of corruption and dan-
ger of damnation. Let us labour not to conform ourselves to them, but to
frame ourselves clean of another fashion ; for you know, if we fashion our-
selves to the world, the world is not of God, but it is God's enemy. How
shall God delight in us, when we delight in courses that are sinful, wretched,
and worldly ? The world must perish, be condemned, as Paul saith,
'God afilicts us that we should not be condemned with the world,' 1 Cor.
XI. 32. The world lies in mischief. Our especial care, therefore, must be,
that we have no correspondency with it.

4. But especially, to come to that which I intend to make a distinct
point, by the Spirit, and Christ's manifesting of God himself in the gospel :
' I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love
wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.'

Exhortation. Beg of Christ, therefore, the spirit of revelation, as it is
Eph. i. 17, that you may know what is the exceeding love of God in Christ ;
andsee the height, and breadth, and depth of God's love in him. Beg of
Christ to shew the Father to us. You know what that holy man said in
the_ gospel, ' Shew us the Father, and it is sufficient,' John xiv. 8. So
desire we no more but to see the Father once. We must go to Christ, that
he would shew us the Father ; and we must go to God the Father to dis-
cover his Son. For either or both discover the other. God draws us to

394 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING.

Christ. « There is none come to me,' saith Christ, * but the Father
draws them.' And Christ opens and discovers the Father to us, and
the Holy Ghost discovers them both ; for as he proceeds from both, so
he shews us the love of both. He shews us the love of the Father and
the Son.

Labour, therefore, for the manifestation of Christ, that Christ would
manifest his Father's love to us, and that God would manifest Christ by
his Spirit : that the Father would give us his Spirit, and the Son would
give us his Spirit, which is his love. For God's love is always with God's
Spirit. This Spirit comes from him, and his love is always with his Spirit.
The same Spirit that sanctifieth us, that witnesseth, is the Spirit of love.
Now Christ doth manifest this. We must not only pray, but we must
know how Christ manifests himself.

Christ doth manifest God's name to us, as I said before, which is his
truth. He opens the understanding by his Spirit, and then he speaks to
every man's particular soul by his Spirit. ' I am thy salvation ;' he gives
faith, &c., Luke xxiv. 45. AH knowledge of God's love is from the know-
ledge of the gospel, together with his Spirit. For how can I know
that God loves me, but by his own word and Spirit, by his own Son,
Christ ? I say, the Spirit and the word, which are divine, they persuade
me of God's love. That must be above nature, above Satan, and above
all opposition whatsoever, that convinces my heart of God's love in Christ.
The arguments must be divine, taken out of God's truth ; and those truths
mast be set on by the Spirit of God, which is above my spirit, and by
Christ, God and man, who sends his Spirit. This will silence all objections
whatsoever that the heart can make, as indeed our hearts are full of cavils
against the love of God. God's Spirit will do it by Christ, together with
the truth, the word and Spirit going together. And therefore, because I
cannot enlarge myself, beg the Spirit of revelation ; and because the Spirit
and word go together, attend always upon the word, and think the pro-
mises are God's promises, and desire that Christ would set the promises
upon our hearts, that we may know the things that belong to us in par-
ticular.

Use. Well, if this be so, that the declaring of God's favour and mercy is
the way that his love may be in us, as it is, then what shall we think of those
that are enemies to the declaration of the name of God, the preaching of the
gospel, to the reading of Scripture ? They are enemies of our comfort
and of God's glory. For how shall I know that God loves me, but by
declaring his name by the word, and by the Spirit ? Christ by the Spirit
and by the word declares his Father's name, and so I come to know the
Father's love to me. How pitiful is the estate of those souls that live
where there is no means, no word of God, no declaring of God's name ?
Can the love of God be in them ? No ; this manifesting of God's love, it
is with the manifestation of the truths of the gospel. * I have manifested
thy name in the teaching of the word, that thy love may be in them.' Let
us therefore be persuaded to attend upon the means of salvation, and upon
the Spirit of God, together with the means. God will work together with
the means of salvation, and persuade our hearts of his love to us in Christ,
if we attend meekly upon them, at one time or other.

Obj. Oh, but I have attended long upon the means, and have prayed, and
yet I cannot find the love of God to me.

Ans. 1. Wait, wait a while ; all are not called at one hour. Josias was
called when he was young, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 2 ; and so Timothy, 2 Tim.

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 895

iii. 15, and Joseph when they were young ; Paul when he was old. Those
^a were converted at Peter's sermon were men of years, Acts ii 38

law I'lift fn° r f '''\'''^'' G«d Vevha^s will have thee under th^
law a httle longer before thou come under grace. He will convince thee

vie 'anT^h. "Ir'V^r ''' ? ^y nature? make thee see th'^dTmo
then in w^'^l ?f hath wrought and perfected the work of humiliation,
he mLZfn? Tr .^T r^ ^^' ^^^^^ of wisdom's house, leave no
will ?r n H " f .?°?f ^'■'^^' ^'' ^^ *™^ ^«^ ^^ill «P^^k to thee, and
two oTihL est^e! ' '^ ''^ ''^"^*""' ^° ^°^^ '' ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^

thii;,^f ""'"^ know that we have the love of God in us, among other

hSono7iZ"i V /rZ ^'^'1 "/«->'-^''«'^ of<^ocr^ name, the mani-
festation of the truth of God, which is his name revealed in the gospel • if

by the declaration and manifestation of God's truth with his Spirit: from
thence I came to know God's love to me. ^

2 I may know it likewise in that f love God again freely. He hath
oved me and therefore I love him. I will not offend him, "if it were to

TISI'^' 1, T ' }T *'^*^ '°' ^ ^^^"^ '^ ^' ^ ^'^'^> ^^0^'^ ^" things.
I could sell all I could part with all, rather than with that. Therefore
God s love hath been heretofore certainly made known to me, in that I so
love God and value his truth.

3. Seasonable a^lctions (which the devil moves us to think evidences of
^oa s Hatred), they are evidences of his love, if they be sanctified, to make us
jealous oi our ways and to see the depth of our corruptions the more, that
we can never see sufficiently in this life. They are arguments of God's love.
±5ut especially this,

4 If our love to God come from the word and Spirit, and from good things,
that are mamfested from thence. When thou dost find God's love in thee
in regard of some beginnings of faith, hope, love, hatred of evil, and that
there is peace, and joy, and such like things in thee, which are peculiar,
then comfort thyself in thy portion, whosoever thou art, whatsoever estate
thou art_ in for outward things. St Paul, we see, for outward matters,
What a kind of man he was. He reckons up his own afflictions and abase-
ments ; but how full of thankfulness was he, because he knew that God
loved him in Christ, that God's love was in him ! 2 Cor. xi 26 Our
baviour, Christ, what did he care for all these outward things ? He knew
his Father loved him. Let us therefore labour to have our part and por-
tion m this peculiar love of God, and to be assured that God's love is in
us ; and for other matters, let us leave them to God's wisdom, who knows
what IS good for us, and beg of God thus : Lord, I do not ask of thee riches,
f sk not glory, I ask not preferment in the world, I ask none of these • I
ask thy love, in which all is that is good. For the love of God it is a rich
love, as that love that he bears to his Son. If he love me once, he loves
nae as he loves his Son. Now, he loves him freely, and richlv, and un-
changeably, and with an incomparable love. God's love both to him and
us. It IS an incomparable love. For what is the love of a father but a
drop from his love ? And what is the love of a mother ? ' Can a mother
forget her child ? Yet if she could, I would not forget thee,' saith God,
Isa. xlix. 15. So David, ' When my father and mother forsook me, God
took mo up, Ps. xxvn. 10. Behold the incomparable love of God to us !
And therefore if we have that, we have all that is good.

The love of God, though with afflictions, with crosses, with whatsoever

396 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING.

in the world is contrary, yet it is the most desirable estate ; for one
glimpse of God's fatherly countenance in Christ, it will make us in such
a case as we shall not care for any affliction whatsoever. Paul in the
dungeon, God gave him a taste of his love, and what did he care for
whipping? for the darksomeness, for the nastiness and noisomeness of
the prison ? Acts xvi. 25. He was, as it were, in paradise. God's love
was in him. If God's love be in us, if we be with Daniel in the lions'
den, the den shall be a kind of paradise. I say, where God is, there is
paradise ; yea, indeed, where God's love is, there is heaven itself. So we
have God's love, it is no matter what we want ; nay, it is no matter in what
state of misery we are in this world.

If God have kindled love in us, there is no such sweet estate. If it
come from God, it will make us digest anything. Love it will put such
life in us, that we shall want or suffer anything quietly. When we feel
the love of God in us, that he loves us to immortality, that he loves us to
life everlasting, to an inheritance immortal and undefiled, that he loves us
in things that accompany salvation, peculiar blessings, this will swallow up
all discouragements whatsoever, it will make us be in heaven before our
time. The sense of the love of God, when it is shed into our hearts, as it
is Rom. v. 5, what will it do ? It will make all tribulations, afflictions,
crosses, and wants sweet unto us. ' The love of God,' saith he, ' is shed
into our hearts by the Spirit.' When the Spirit of Christ Jesus is shed
into our hearts, and witnesseth to us the love of God and of Christ, it
makes us rejoice under hope, triumph in all tribulation, in all estates
whatsoever, as he saith excellently, Rom. v. 3-5. But now to add one
thing.

Quest. When doth Christ manifest his Father's love most to us by the
Spirit ?

Ans. I answer, TJiis is not at all times alike. For it is with a Christian's
soul as it is with the days of the year, or the seasons of the day. There is
foul and fair, there is darkness and light, there is an intercourse, not always
an even apprehension to us of God's love in Christ at all times. God sees
reasons why it should not be so. Among many there are these,

1. To sharjyen our desires of heaven, which is a constant, immutable,
unchangeable estate.

2. And likewise to make us ivatchftd, that when we have tasted of God's
love we do not lose it.

3. To make us observe how ive lose it at first, that so we may recover it
again.

4. To be a correction to us likemse for our boldness to sin, and keeping
carnal companij, dc. Many ends God hath to withhold the taste and seuse
of his love to us, that we may fear him at one time as well as at another. ,

Quest. But when is it most of all ?

Ans. God's love is in us most ivhen ive stand most in need of it, in
extremities. When no creature can help us, when we stand most in need
of the manifestation of God's love, we have it. When do parents shew their
love most of all ? Is it not in the extremities of their children ? Then
they [bejmoan them, and pity them, whom before in the time of health
they corrected sharply. But now they see the child is sick and distempered,
now they shew all love to it. So when all comforts are taken away, then
God's comforts come in place, and then especially; for then they are known
to be God's, who doth all things as shall be most for his glory. Then it is
most for his glory to help when none else can, and then it is most for the

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 397

comfort of a poor distressed Christian ; for then God comes, as it were
immediately, and doth help even to the ravishing of the soul. If a prince
or a king, not sending any messenger, should come to a man immediately
in his own person, and should say to him, Fear not, you shall want nothincr'
you shall have the best encouragement I can, &c., Oh what a comfort woufd
It be to any man ! Yet what are all these to the sweet report of God's love
m Jesus Christ? When nothing else can help us, then God's Spirit comes
immediately to us, and tells us, Be of good comfort, heaven is yours, God
IS yours, Christ is yours : all is yours to work for your good. And he doth
not only feed them with promises, but enlargeth the soul with present
comfort. ^

Who would therefore be discouraged from enduring anything for God's
name, being cast into extremity, when that is the time specially to feel
God's love more than at other times ? the sense and feelinc^ whereof in
Christ IS the best estate in the world. There is no estate comparable to
the sense of God's love. What makes heaven heaven, as it were, but the
sense of his love ? of his sweet fatherly face in Christ shining upon us in
his Son, and persuading of us that we are his sons ? Why, this divine
comfort that comes from the favour of God, it is that that makes all nothina
commands all the creatures, rebukes all, Satan and all. The beams of
such a rich and gracious God is above all discouragements ; for they are
human or diabolical ; they go no higher ; and if they be discouragements
from the sense of the wrath of God, from divine desertion, when God shews
himself an enemy, yet when he discovers himself a friend and a father in
Christ, they all vanish, even as a cloud, as a mist, before the sun. What
are all earthly discouragements to the sense of God's love in Christ^
Thus we see how God's love is manifested to us by manifesting of God's
name by Christ, and when especially, and to what end : ' That thy love may
be in them,' saith Christ.

Use 1. Do but raise these thoughts in your meditations, what a compre-
hensive thing this IS that Christ aims at in his prayer, and in his endeavour ■
* I have declared thy name, and I will,' &c.
_ Is not this therefore a main thing that we should aim at, that Christ
aims at? Must not this needs be an excellent state, to have the love of God in
us? ^ Let us therefore, to conclude all for this time, have it in our thouc^hts,
and in our aims, that God's love may be in us. It is no matter who hates
us, if God loves us; if God and his love be present with us, it is no matter
what troubles be present. Though we be in the valley of the shadow of
death, if God be with us, and the assurance of his love to our hearts, it is
an heaven upon earth. Eejoice in your portion, whosoever you be', that
find the love of God to you in regard of the best things.

_ We see it is the aim of Christ's prayer, and of his endeavour. It is the
aim of the declaration of the gospel, that God's love may be in you ; that
when God, in regard of his Spirit, and grace, and comfort, is in you, you
may have a rich portion. Would you have more than God himself, and
his love ? What if you want a beam ? You have the sun itself, God's
love. You want perhaps riches or friends ; ay, but you have God's love,
which is a wise love. If he saw it were for your good, you should not want
them. If you want a stream, you have the spring itself. Rejoice there-
fore in this your portion ; let it be an argument to comfort you, and an
argument and motive of endeavour to us all, to labour to find this love of
God in us ; and to root and purge out of your souls all other things that
cannot stand with the love of God. Desire God by his Spirit to subdue

898 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INEEIxN'G.

in us, and to work out of us mightily, by the strong operation of his blessed
Spirit, ■whatsoever cannot stand with his love in Christ ; that he would
reign and rule in us by his blessed Spirit ; that he would make us such,
that he might, as it were, keep his court in us ; that he would make our
hearts, as it were, an heaven for himself to dwell in ; that he would cast
down all high and proud thoughts whatsoever; that his love may be in us.

Use 2. And ivhen tee icant any grace, pitiful hearts, love to men or God,
ive must take the method here laid down. I know all this comes from the
want of the feeling of God's love to me ; for if God's love were rooted in
my heart, if it were as hard as steel, it would make it flexible, pliable, piti-
ful, and tender to others, and I should love God again. My heart is cold
and dead ; what is the reason of it ? I feel not God's love, and therefore
it should edge our prayers thus : ' Lord, let me feel thy love in Christ ; I
cannot love holy duties without the manifestation of thy love ; and there-
fore manifest thy love to my soul.' ' I give you a new commandment,' saith
Christ, * that ye love one another,' John xiii. 34.

Quest. Why, whence comes this commandment of love to the brethi'en
in the gospel to be a new commandment ?

Sol. Because the declaring of the name of God, of his mercy, and of his
love in Christ, gives us new hearts ; and where there is more manifestation
of God's mercy, there is more love to others ; and therefore, because there
is a new enlargement of God's love in Christ, therefore it is a new com-
mandment. The heart is set on fire now with the love of God, which is
manifested in Christ, which was not declared before.

And therefore, if we would have new hearts for this new commandment,
this love to God and to others, let us labour to have the declaration of the
name of God ; more of the mercy of God in Christ ; more declaration by
his word and Spirit; that so by his sanctified means, having his love in us,
we may have new hearts, new love, and new affections to one another.
This is the way, in the want of grace, to come to get the love of God in
Christ ; desire him that he would by his Spirit reveal himself, and reveal
Christ to us ; and that we may see the dimensions of his love, ' the height,
and breadth, &c., of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,' Eph.
iii. 19, and then all our grace and comfort will follow.

When we are in darkness we are glad to come into the light of the sun ;
so when we have any distemper in our souls, let us come to this light of
God's love in Christ, and by oft meditation of God's word, see there how
he presents himself to us a father in covenant ; not only a friend, but a
father, a gracious father; beg with all means, with reading, with hearing,
with conference, with God's Spirit, to reveal his fatherly afiection in Christ,
and for other things they will be easy.

I speak this the rather, because men go plodding upon duties, and take
not a right method. When we find any distemper and deadness of spirit,
search what is the cause of it. If it be negligence, irreverence, or any such
thing, let us repent, and do the first works. But let us always take this
in : ' Lord, shew thyself, shew thy love ; thy pardoning love first, and then
thy curing love ; thy forgiving love, and then thy giving love. I am in a
sinful state, forgive that which is amiss, and give me that which I want ;
shew thy large love every way, both in giving and forgiving ; heal me and
cure me ; let me feel this thy love in the sweetest peculiar fruits of it ;' and
then reformation will follow upon all, then our care will be continual, when
we have the love of God so to walk as that we may abide in that love, and
that love in us, that we do not displease him, nor give occasion of distaste.

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 899

Therefore there must be a great deal of reverence and love, much humility
and watchfulness, if we would preserve ourselves in the love of God, For
when one hath once tasted of his love, it is his desire alway to taste it, to
taste how gracious the Lord is, Ps. xxxiv. 8. If we therefore would so do,
let us watch narrowly, as he that would keep his acquaintance and love
with a great person. For we must know the distance between the great
God and us. There must be humility. Humble thyself, and walk with
thy God, and ' make an end of your salvation with fear and trembling,'
Philip, ii. 12. With a fear of jealousy, especially that we grieve not the
Spirit, that ' seals us to the day of redemption,' Ephes. iv. 30. And there-
fore, if we have the Spirit witnessing this love, which is the cause of all
comfort and all grace, grieve not the Spirit, quench not the Spirit. Wlien
the motions of it come, resist not the gracious Spirit with carnal delights ;
let the Spirit have a full work ; let us lie open to the Spirit of God. God's
love reigns in us then, when we will do nothing contrary to it.

Now the sweetest fruit of it in us is his Spirit. Let us not quench nor
resist the Spirit, but cherish it by all duties, and by all holy means. One
day led thus by a Christian, though with some conflict with corruption, in
the taste and sense of God's love to him in Christ, is worth all contentment
that this world can afford. And therefore David knew well enough what
he wished, Ps. iv. 6, when he desires ' neither corn, nor wine, nor oil.'
Let them, saith he, desire what they will, but, ' Lord, shew me the light of
thy countenance,' and in it I shall have all that I desire to have ; and without
that I care neither for corn, nor wine, nor oil, nor any thing.

So let it be our prayer that God would shew his love and mercy, that
he would shew his love to us in Christ, which is better than life itself. And
then for other things, be at a point, be indifferent. We see the apostles'
prayers in their epistles, all of them being led by the same Spirit. They
pray for grace, and mercy, and peace. Why do they not pray for all other
things ? To shew if they had grace, and mercy, and the love of God, they
have all. If we have not that, it is no matter what we have. But some
other things there are to be unfolded, which must be referred till another
time.

THE MATCHLESS WYE AND INBEmC.

SERMON II.

That the love ivherewUh thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. —

John XVII. 26.

I HAVE spoken at several times of tliis verse. We propounded formerly
out of it these points to be handled :

First, That the love wherewith God loves his own Son is the love where-
with he loves those that be in him.

Secondly, That God loves his own Son best and first.

Thirdly, That the love of God is the cause of all good to us.

Fourthly, That this love of God may be known.

Fifthly, That one way and ground to know that God loves us with that
love he loves his own Son, is the manifestation of God's name : the mani-
festation of God's truth in the gospel. By that we come to know that God
loves us ; for this is the coherence of the text, ' I have manifested thy name
to them, that thy love may be in them.' So then, the scope, as we see
hence, of the gospel, and the manifesting of it, is to lay open the riches of
God's love to us, that we may know that God loves us in his beloved Son
Christ Jesus. Indeed, so it is. For we have a throne of grace discovered
to us in the gospel — God reconciled in Jesus Christ. All is love and mercy
to those that are in Christ. ' I have manifested thy name, that thy love
may be in them.' The more, therefore, God's name is manifested, God's
truth and the covenant of grace, his love and mercy, his name whereby he
is now known in the gospel, the more, I say, it is discovered and laid open,
surely the more we know God's love, which is as a banner, Cant. ii. 4,
' displayed over us' in the gospel. The use of a banner, you know, was to
draw swords under it. Now God's love in the gospel is displayed as a
banner ; and therefore it hath an attractive, drawing force, to bring us
under the sweet government of God in the gospel, because there we are
under God's love ; and his love, where it is displayed, is like a banner.
But this I shall have occasion to touch hereafter.

The point that I am now to take in hand is this : That Christ doth mani-
fest his Father's name, his love, his mercy, his goodness and truth, ' that
God's love may he in them, and himself in them.'

We see, then, that God's love and Christ do go together. Wheresoever

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 401

his love is in the best things, there it is in Christ, and with Christ : ' That
thy love may be in them, and I in them. ' This is eternal life, to know
thee, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ,' John xvii. 3. All comes
from God's love to us, together with Christ and in Christ. Where Christ
is not, there is not the love of God ; and where the love of God is, there
is Christ. The sweet combination of the Trinity is not only a pattern of
love and agreement to us, that we should love one another, but a main
ground of comfort likewise ; for they join in love for our good. The Father
loves us as he loves his Son, and with his Son. Where Christ is, there is
his Father's love ; and where his Father's love is, there is Christ. ' I am
in the Father, and the Father in me,' John x. 38. All that the Father hath
is mine, and all that I have is the Father's.

I say, it is not only a pattern of agreement, that we should labour to
agree as the Trinity, which is an exact form of unity, but it is a ground of
special comfort; they agree in our good and eternal salvation. The Father
looks upon us as we are in his Son ; as he hath given us to him to bring
us to salvation by his merit and passion. Christ looks on us as we are in
the Father's love. * Thou gavest them me ; ' and we look on ourselves,
first, in Christ, and then in God's love, when we see ourselves in Christ.
So that there is this mutual interview, God loves us as we are in his Son :
he is in the Father, and we in Christ. We see ourselves in Christ, know
ourselves in him, and love ourselves in him, as having our being and living
in him, and we are known by him, and his love is known by us, because
they go both together. ' That thy love may be in them, and I in them.'

' And I in them.'

We are in Christ, as the branch in the vine, as the members in the head,
knit to it in the hodj ; and he is in us as the vine is in everj' particular
branch ; as the head is in the members by his influence, imparting unto
them life, regiment,* and motion. ' In them;' that is, for the explication
of the term, ' that I may be in them,' and dwell in them as in a temple,
in a house ; that I may infuse strength into them, as the vine into the
branches ; that I may impart spiritual life into them, as the head into the
members. This is the end of mj manifesting thy name, that I may be in
them, that so thy love may be in them. I might hence observe — I will
but touch it — that whosoever knows not Christ, nor hath a being in him,
hath nothing to do with the Father, by combining of these two parts to-
gether, ' That thy love may be in them, and I in them.'

' I in them.'

Doct. The end of Chrisfs manifesting his Father s name is, that he may be
in them., and that his Father's love may be in them. To unfold the connec-
tion a little.

Quest. How doth this hang together, * I have manifested thy name to
them, that I may be in them ' ?

As thus :

Sol. God's mercy and truth in the gospel, the covenant of grace, are all
in Christ, and for Christ. This being discovered and manifested to the
soul, the soul sees the love of God in the gospel. There it is opened and
discovered. There is offered God's love and mercy in forgiving sins, and
in giving all privileges in Christ, not only discovered, but offered to all
believers that will receive Christ. Thus all the good in him being dis-
covered and offered to the soul, hereupon it comes to lay hold upon Christ,
* That is, 'government.' — G.

VOL. VI. C C

402 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING.

and to embrace him, as offered of the Father, and presented unto it by the
Spirit of God, given together with the gospel and the manifestation of it.
The Spirit works faith and belief in the heart, which closeth with Christ
thus offered ; so Christ dwells in the heart by faith. Faith ascends to
heaven, and lays hold on Christ ; faith goes back to Christ crucified, and
Christ dwells in the heart by faith, Eph. iii. 17. Upon the manifestation
and discovery of the Spirit, it being given with manifestation, faith is
wrought, by which Christ dwells in the heart. ' I have manifested thy
name, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them,' &c.
Now, for some observable points, observe this,
Doct. 2. Christ is in all believers.

His further dwelling and discovering himself to believers is the end of
this manifestation of God's name in the gospel. Christ is in them, as
the vine is in the branches ; as the head is in the members, Chiist is in
them all.

Christ is in all believers.

Here is a notable bond of union between them, Christ by his Spirit is in
them all, therefore they should all labour to be one. Christ is one in them
all, not divided ; his Spirit is the same spirit in them all. It were an excel-
lent thing, if all the men in the world had the same thoughts, the same
religion, the same aims, the same aflection to good things, all as one man.
How strongly would they then be carried against any opposition whatso-
ever ! And how comfortable would they be in themselves, if all had one
heart, one affection, one aim ! This should be, and this is the end of
Christ's prayer. It is the end of all, to bring us all to be one in ourselves,
to be one in him and in the Father. Now here is one argument to enforce
it, that all may agree in good things, in our aims, love, and affections.
There is one Christ, there is one head of all the members. * I in them.'
We must take heed that we do not think this phrase to be a shallow phrase,
as it is in common life. We say of two friends, there is one soul in two
bodies, because the soul lives in the party loved ; and so to make it nothing
but a matter of afiection.* No ; ' I in them ;' that is, I dwell in them,
because I love them ; so it would be, that we are in Christ because we love
him ; and so Christ and we make one soul in two bodies, as though it were
nothing but an unity, a dwelling in regard of the affection he bears to us.
No ; I am in them, and I have manifested thy truth, that I may be further
in them. It argues more than union in affection, as in marriage there is.
more than the union of love, there is the bond that interesteth the wife in
all the goods of her husband. Christ is in us more than in love, for he is
in us indeed.

Quest. Ay, but is he in us body and soul, and Godhead, and all ? What
need this, as the papists will have him in the sacrament ?

Sol. No ; but he is in us in regard of his human nature, because his
Spirit is in us, and the same Spirit that sanctified that nature, the same
Spirit sanctifieth us. So there is an union between us and his human
nature, though it be in heaven. As I said, the last day, of the sun ; the
sun is in the house when the beams of the sun is there ; so when we find
the efficacy of Christ, that Christ dwells in us by his Spirit, though his
human nature be not there, yet, notwithstanding, the power of the grace of
Christ is there, because the same Spirit that sanctified his human nature
sanctifies and comforts us, and doth all. It is a wonderful working and
operative being when Christ is said to be in us. Even as the vine doth
* Cf. note b, Vol. II. p. 194.— G.

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 403

transfuse juice and life to the branch, whereupon it comes to be fruitful,
so we must conceive deeply of this phrase, ' I in them.' To omit other
things ;

Quest. How shall we know that Christ is in us ?

Sol. 1. This is one way, if Christ be born in us once. If he be in us
by his Spirit, he will ivork great matters in us, there will presenthj be tumults
in the soul. For Christ when he is in us, he comes not to friends, but he
finds all in rebellion and in opposition ; when he is in us therefore, pre-
sently there are stirs in the soul. Even as, as soon as ever he was born
into the world, you know Herod was mightily troubled and all Jerusalem
with him, Mat. ii. 3. Herod had little cause, but much troubled he was.
He thought one was born that would have dispossessed him, and therefore he
was jealous, much troubled, and labours to kill him if he could. So it is
when Christ is born in the soul, there are tumults. Those lusts that bare
sway before, those desires, down they go, they plead prescription, and are
loath to yield. Natural desires, that have been from before, are loath to
yield to Christ, a new comer. He is as a new conqueror that comes with
new laws, fundamentally new. He overturns all the laws of lust and of
the flesh. He comes in more strongly; and thereupon in conversion,
wheresoever Christ is born, there is first a strife, the soul doth not presently
yield to him. This is spoken of those that have not been converted from
the beginning. There are some now in the bosom of the church, that have
no violent conversion from a wicked estate to a good. But from a less
degree to a greater, they grow more and more. They have the Spirit of
Christ from the beginning. They are not much troubled with such inward
oppositions.

2. Where Christ is, he will drive out all that is contrary. As when he
entered into the temple, he drave out the money-changers, and whipped
out those corrupt persons there. Mat. i. 12, so, as soon as ever he
comes into the soul by his Spirit, out go those lusts, those desires that were
there before, worldliness, profaneness, fury, and rage, wherewith the
soul was transported before, that possessed the habitation that God should
dwell in. When Christ comes in, he scourgeth out all. Where these there-
fore are in any force, there certainly Christ is not.

3. Again, Where Christ is, he doth rule; for he takes the keys of the
house himself, and governs all in some measure. He gets into the heart,
rules, and sets up a throne there. For I make account* if he go no deeper
than the brain and tongue ; that is, to give him no better entertainment
than he had when he was born, to be put in a manger. No ; where he is — I
mean, where he is in the heart and affections — there he rules ; and where he
takes not his lodging in the affections and in the heart, in the joy, desire,
and delight, he is not at all to any purpose. To have him in the brain to
talk, and in the tongue to discourse, and to keep the heart for worldly lusts
and such things, I account not this an inbeing of Christ to any purpose,
to any comfort. Where Christ is comfortably, he takes his throne and
lodging in the heart, he dwells in it by faith. By heart, I mean, especially,
the will and affections. He draws the will to cleave to him, to choose him
for the best good. And therefore where (Jhrist dwells, there is an admiring
of the excellencies, and of the good things that are in him, and contentment
in him above all things in the world. For he dwells in the heart and affec-
tions, especially in the will. The will chooseth him to be an head and
husband. It cleaves to him as the chief good. The affection of joy, it

* Qu. ' no account ' ? — Ed.

404 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING.

joys in him above all things. The affection of love and desire, of zeal in
his cause, is strong against those that oppose him and his truth. Thus
he takes up his seat and his throne in the heart wheresoever he is in truth.

4. And, therefore, this follows upon that too. "Where Christ is in the
heart by faith, and takes up the affections, there is a base esteem of all the
excellencies in this ivorld tvhatsoever. Moses did but see afar off the excel-
lency that came by Christ, and he accounted all the pleasures of sin for a
season to be nothing, Heb. xi. 27, and took upon him the rebuke of
Christ rather. St Paul accounted all but dung and dross, Philip, iii. 8 ;
all his former works, all his pharisaical excellency, and all things else he
accounted as nothing, and of no value, having in his heart and soul an
admiration of the all-sufficiency and excellency in Christ. Zaccheus, as
soon as ever Christ came once into his house — but he was in his heart
before he was in his house, or else he had never done it — he grew liberal :
* Half my goods,' saith he, ' I give unto the poor,' Luke xix. 8. He loved
extortion and base courses before, but now down they go, he will be no base
dealer, no oppressor any more. No ; the half of his goods he gives to the
poor, and he satisfies those whom he had wronged.

And so the disciples, howsoever they were busied before, when Christ
once took up his lodging in their hearts, and opened their spirits by his
Spirit, to see wherefore he came into the world * to save sinners,' and
opened their eyes to see the excellency that was in him, away goes all the
trash that they were exercised in before, that they might follow Christ.
Matthew follows him presently, Luke v. 27 ; and so the rest. It is impos-
sible that the heart which entertains our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ into
it, should have in over-much admiration any earthly excellency whatsoever.
For it is the nature of the soul, upon the discovery of better things, to let
the estimation of other things of less value to fall down presently. As we
see in civil things, children, wdien they come to be men, they are ashamed
of childish toys. So it is with a man that is converted : when Christ enters
he so opens the understanding, and enlargeth the heart to see and admire
better things, that presently it begins to care nothing for this world in com-
parison. Thus we see how we may know whether Christ hath taken his
seat and lodging in us or no.

5. To go on a little further. If Christ be in us, he doth frame vs to him-
self. He doth transform us to his own likeness, where he rules by the
Spirit ; for he is such a head as changeth his members, such an husband as
changeth his spouse, 2 Cor. iii. 18. Moses could not change the com-
plexion of his Ethiopian wife : she was black, and he left her black. But
Christ renews and changeth his spouse. He is such a head as quickens
his members ; such a vine as puts life in the branches. And therefore you
may know by this altering, changing, transforming power, whether he be in
you or not. He alters and changeth us to his own likeness, that as he is
set down in the gospel in his life, conversation, and disposition, so, if we
have entertained him and he be in us, we should have the same disposition,
the same mind, and the same will with him ; for he will alter us to him-
self, that he may take the more delight in us. We shall judge of things as
he judgeth of them, we shall judge meanly of outward things. There will
be a delight to do our Father's will, as it was his meat and drink to do his
Father's will, John iv. 3-1. We shall have a spirit of obedience, as he had,
to look to our Father's glory, and to his commandment in all things. We
shall have compassion and melting hearts to the misery of others, as he had
bowels yearning to see sheep without a shepherd. We shall have humble

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 405

and meek hearts, as he had. ' Come, learn of me, for I am humble and
meek,' Mat. xi. 29. For where he dwells, I say, and takes np his throne,
he alters and changes the disposition in all things to be like his own. For
when he comes to the soul, he takes up all the parts thereof, and keeps out
all that may hinder his work. He takes up the eyes, the ears, the under-
standing, and the affections ; and even as we shut up the doors and windows
against all that is contrary to us, so the Spirit of Christ, where he is, shuts
the door of the senses both to Satan and all his suggestions, and whatso-
ever else might hurt us.

6. Where he enters likewise, he possesseth the whole inward and outward
man to himself. He changeth it like to himself ; he rules the eyes, the
ears, the hands ; he renews all, that our delights are clean other than they
were before. If there be such a power in his truth, that, hke a scion
engrafFed, it doth change us into itself, certainly where Christ dwells, he
hath as much power as his word. His word is like leaven, which alters
the whole lump to be like itself. For the word engraffed makes the soul that
believes it heavenly like itself, 1 Cor. v. 6. How is this ? Because Christ
comes with his word, leavens, alters, changeth, and turns the soul. Christ
by his Spirit and word is said to do it, because the Spirit of Christ comes
with the word, which doth all. Those therefore whose dispositions are
contrary to Christ, Christ is not begotten in them. For certainly he doth
alter and change and fit his temple for himself, and drives out and chaseth
thence, as I said before, all that is contrary ; and keeps the door of the
senses, and possession against all. He useth every member as an instru-
ment of the Spirit and weapon of defence.

7. Again, You may know who dwells within, hi/ ivhat servants come out
of the house, and ivho comes in. Would you know who dwells in the soul ?
See what comes from within the house : filthy thoughts, blasphemous
words, oaths, rotten discourse ; eyes full of adultery, ears open to receive
that which may taint the soul. Who dwells here ? Christ ? No ; where
nothing but filth comes out, the devil dwells there. These two are imme-
diate opposites ; there is no third ; either Christ or the devil dwells in us.
Now when nothing comes out of a man but scorning of goodness, and that
which is rotten and ofi'ensive — if there be other things, they come from the
brain, and not from the heart ; they have no seat there — the devil is there ;
Christ and his messengers are not there. There come no good thoughts,
no good desires, no good speeches ; and is Christ there ? Is Christ in the
heart, that drinks in corruption at all the senses ? that lets open all the
senses to all that is naught,* to hear all kinds of things that may cherish
corruption, that will be at these corrupting exercises, that will see all that
may blow up the fiesh ? What is this within that is thus cherished ? Is
Christ fed with filthy discourse, with filthy spectacles ? Doth Christ, in us,
delight in these things ? Oh no ! Who dwells there, then, that is thus
fed ? Sure the spirit that is there fed is the devil. The devil dwells in
our spirits, and in our corruptions, which are like the devil, in that pro-
portion that he dwells in us, and stirs us up to feed him with these things,
to the destruction of the soul. No, no, from the heart where Christ is
proceed often prayer, sighs, and groans to God, and fruitful discourses to
others ; and all the senses and passages of the body are open for good
things. He hath desires to see that which is good, which may edify. He
desires to speak, and to have others to speak, that which may feed the soul.
The lips of the wise feed many,' saith Solomon, Prov. x. 21. So where

* That is, 'nauglity,' wicked.— G.

40G

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING.

Christ is, Christ's Spirit is thus fed. Thus familiarly have I discovered to
you how you may know whether Christ be in you or no.

Quest. What if he be not ?

Sol. He must be, or else you are reprobates. So saith the apostle,
2 Cor. xiii. 5, ' Know you not that Christ is in you, except you be repro-
bates ?' He means not eternal reprobates, but this. If Christ be not in you,
the devil and corruption are. Anatomise a carnal man, and what is in
him ? In his brain, a company of wicked plots and devices of the world ;
in his heart, a deal of love of the world, and of money ; in his memory,
matter of revenge ; in his conscience, that which will stare upon him at the
day of death, and that which will damn him unless he repent. Examine
yourselves, therefore. If Christ be not in you, you are reprobates ; and he
that hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. I beseech you, there-
fore, take a trial, and enlarge the point in your own meditations. Examine
what spirit is in you. If we find the Spirit of Christ to be in us, as, indeed,
he is in all his in some measure, what a comfortable state is this ! He is
the best guest that ever we could entertain in this world, for he doth that
to the soul that the soul doth to the body. What doth the soul to the
body ? Whence hath the body the beauty that it hath ? whence the vigour
that it hath to work with ? to move from place to place ? whence hath it
government to rule itself ? whence all that is excellent, good and useful ?
From the guest that dwells in it, the soul — the reasonable, understanding
soul. For as soon as the soul is out of the body, the body is an ugly,
deformed thing, a dead creature, unfit for anything. It cannot stir itself,
a loathsome thing ; it cannot rule itself, a mere lump of earth. Now, as
the soul is to the body, so is Christ to the soul, if he dwell there. For he
gives beauty and loveliness unto it. He transforms it to his own like-
ness and image, that it may be the object of God's love ; that he may love
us, not only because we are in his Son, but because his Son's image is in us.
We have not only beauty from Christ dwelling in us, but where he is he
works and stirs us to all holy and heavenly duties.

8. Where the Spirit is, there is often jirdyer, as Christ often prayed ; a
perpetual endeavour of doing good, as his Spirit in him stirred him to go
from place to place to do good. Where his Spirit is, there is holiness. If
we consider what a sweet guest Christ is, where he is there is all beauty,
work, comfort, strength, and all. And where he is, he is for ever. He
never forsakes his lodging, he never forsakes his house and temple. He
had two temples built with stone ; one by Solomon, and another after the
captivity. Both lie now in the rubbish, and are demolished for ever, and
shall never be repaired again. But his spiritual temples he never leaves
wholly ; for whose souls he now dwells in, he will take them by that Spirit
that dwells in them, and carry them to heaven, to be where he is. The
divine Spirit, that dwells in our souls now, shall quicken our dead bodies, and
make them like to his glorious body.

What an excellent honour and happiness is this, to entertain such an one
as will rule, govern, and adorn our souls while we live, and carry them to
himself and to his Father in heaven, and will quicken our bodies likewise !
An everlasting inhabitant he is. If Christ be in us, therefore, we may com-
fort ourselves. But here must be an objection answered.

Ohj. Christ doth seem oftentimes to be absent from the soul to which he was
present before ; he seems to leave his house and his temple sometimes.

Sol. I answer. He is said to leave that soul into which, shutting the
door to his knocks, and resisting the sweet motions of his Holy Spirit, he

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 407

never actually entered. But he never leaves that soul into which he is
once entered to dwell. Indeed, sometimes he conveys himself into a cor-
ner ot the soul ; for when he does not entertain him and respect him as he
should, and preserve the motions, comforts, and graces of his Spirit, but
give way to the suggestions and temptations of the devil and ill companv,
&c., then he retires himself; but he is still in the soul. For even as God
the lather when he would have his own beloved Son Christ Jesus to be
abased on the cross, withdrew not his divinity, but the sense and comforts
thereof from Chnst s human nature, that he might suffer for us on the
cross Matt XXV114G— loving him still notwithstanding, so that the divi-
nity did not forsake him, but only did rest and cease to support and corn-
tort bim at that time, that he might perform the work of satisfaction for
our sins— so it is with us, though it be a different case, when God humbles
us tor our rashness, want of reverence, of careful walking before God, and
preserving the sweet work of his Holy Spirit : then Christ hides himself
only, takes not himself away.

Christ was God on the cross, but the comfort was withdrawn, that he
might sufier. So the comfort of Christ's presence is withdrawn, that he
may humble us for our former sins ; that we might make more of this guest
than we did before ; that we may be stirred up to entertain him better, and
might be more careful for the time to come, to cleave closer unto him. So
much for the answer of that, that Christ is oftentimes in the soul, when he
discovers not himself to be there ; as he was near unto Mary, though her
eyes being full of tears, she could not discern him, John xx. 15.

Quest But how shall I know that he is there by any discovery at all,
that he hath any being at all in the soul at such a time ?

Sol 1. Yes ; a man may know he is there. There will be some pulses,
some beating of the soul. Where Christ and the love of God is, they ever
go together. Is there any love of God, any love to him ? Again, Is there
a longing after Christ's presence ? Is there a grieving, when we feel not
the comfort we had before ? Oh this is a sign he hath been there. He
hath left somewhat there by his Spirit. Though he be retired into a cor-
ner of the soul, yet he hath left somewhat behind him to work a desire of
further communion and fellowship with him. As it is Cant. v. 5, when
he left knocking at the door, when the spouse would not open, he left some-
what behind, the droppings of his fingers, that drew the love of the spouse
to him. So that he never leaves us, no, not for to humble and abase us
for our bold walking, but he leaves somewhat in the soul, some desires,
some sense of his love, that they think their estate is not good till they
have recovered their former estate. They linger after him, they are never
pleased with earthly contentments in this temper of the soul. In deser-
tion they are not themselves, they are not quiet, because they think Christ
is lost. As^ Christ's mother, when she thought he was lost, was full of
woe, Luke ii. 48, so a Christian soul, when it conceits that it hath lost
Christ, it is never quiet till it have found him again.

Sol. 2, Again, Christ may be very near, and dwell in us sometimes, and
we seehim not: because we may so dwell upon corruption, and be so full
[of] grief in affliction, that we forget Christ ; as Mary, who, though Christ
was near her, yet could not discern him, her eyes were so full of tears,
John XX. 15 ; and as Hagar, who was so full of grief, that she could not
see the fountain appear. Gen. xxi. 16. There may be, I sav, in desertion
of soul such grief for our other things, crosses, losses, fears, &c., that a
man may forget Christ, till he recover himself by meditation, prayer, and

408

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND IIsCEING.

conference with others that are more skilful than himself, that can tell
what is in him by his pulses, discourse, and desires. Sometimes we must
trust the judgment of others better than our own, to know what is in us.
But I will not enlarge myself in this. Thus we may know that Christ is
in us, which is a point of especial comfort.

Obj. But the soul thinks, Is the Spirit of Christ in us ? Will such an
Holy Spirit, as that we cannot conceive him in the height of his holiness
and greatness, vouchsafe to dwell in such sinful spirits ? We cannot con-
ceive how the Spirit of Christ should dwell in us, that are so corrupt as
we are.

Sol. Indeed, I must needs say, it is an argument of wonderful love, that
infinite holiness should be joined with such corruption, that greatness will
be in such narrow straits, that glory will be in such an obscure place and
habitation as our souls. Here is a wondrous condescending ; admirable
mercy it must needs be. But let us not be discouraged; Christ by his
Spirit is in us, notwithstanding our corruption, because he cannot be a
whit corrupted by it. The Spirit is an active thing, it suffers nothing.
The spirit is as fire, which endures nothing : it is always doing, always in
action, it is an active element. So the Spirit of Christ in us, though
it be in us, yet it joins not with our corruptions. As the sunbeams are
pure still, though they shine upon impure and filthy places, so Christ's
Spirit, it is a working, fiery thing. As fire consumes dross, so the Spirit,
being hke fire, though it be where corruption is, yet it is there, as an enemy
to it, opposing, consuming, and wasting it by httle and httle.

Quest. But why doth he not do it all at once ?

Sol. There are divers reasons : God^will have us to have matter of abase-
ment here,^ to make us desire to be with him. Yet in the mean time Christ
will be so in the Church his spouse, cleansing and fitting her for himself,
as that by his Spirit dwelling in her she shall daily oppose, and by little
and little subdue and bring under all corruption whatsoever, till at last she
have gotten a full and perfect conquest and triumph over all. All the ima-
ginations, desires, and lusts, that exalt themselves against the Spirit of
Christ, shall be brought down at last ; the Spirit will subdue all.
Stronger is the Spirit that is in us, than the spirit that is in the world,
1 John iv. 4, though it be in never so little a measure ; and therefore by
little and little will conquer all within us, without us, the devil and all at
the last. Thus much to answer that doubt.

Use 1. That which further ariseth from hence, that Christ is in us, is
not only matter of comfort, but likewise it shews and directs us how to look
on other Christians ; to look npon them as the temples and houses ivhere Christ
dwells. Why should we not reverence and respect Christians for the guest
that is in them, the Spirit of Christ ? If Christ vouchsafe to dwell in such
a man, shall he not dwell in our love ? Shall not one place contain us
here, that heaven must contain ere long ? We shall be all together in
heaven, and shall we not be loving together here ? Thus considering that
Christ is in all his, how should we respect Christians, that are the habita-
tion of Christ, the second heaven ? For Christ hath but two heavens ; the
heaven where he is, and the heart of a believing Christian, where Christ
is, and rules in a comfortable measure, and will rule more and more. How
should we value such ! Not as many cursed devilish spirits, that dis-
grace and oppose Christ in his members. That which they do to his
image in his children, that they would to him himself, if they had him in
their power.

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 409

Use 2, The last use shall be an use of direction, how to keep Christ, and
to preserve him, and the sense of his being in us with comfort, seeing it is so
comfortable an estate to have Christ in us, and that yet ofttimes we want
the sweet comfort of his presence. In a word, mark here the dependence,
' I have manifested thy name, that thy love may be in them and I in them.'
Christ is in us then, by manifesting of divine truth. He conveys himself
into our hearts, by our understandings ; he manifests his truth, the means
of salvation, by his ordinance ; he manifests divine truths to the under-
standing by his Spirit, which goes together with his word. From the
understanding he goes to the heart, and there he dwells ; for manifesting
of divine truths, and Christ being in us, go together.

1. Those that care not for the discovenj and manifestinri of Christ's truth
in the gospiel, let them never think to entertain Christ into their hearts, for he
will come with his word and with his own ordinance ; his word and Spirit
always go together. Therefore let this be one chief direction. If we will
have Christ to be in us, to fill our hearts, and remain with us, let us attend
upon the blessed means of salvation, and be where he is, and then he will
be with us. He is in the church, and he is in every particular member;
but especially where his ordinance is, there is he with the Spirit. God the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are all there if we have Christ in us. And
therefore oft attend upon the ordinances of God, and communion of saints,
and then you shall find experience of Christ. Christ joined with the two
disciples when they were talking of him, as they were going to Emmaus,
Luke xxiv. 15; so let us oft stir up the grace of Christ in us by conferring
of good things, and Christ will be with us, joining with good company, &c.

2. Again, Would we preserve Christ's presence in us ? Labour then
that he may dwell lart/ehj in our hearts. Now that which enlargeth the soul
is humility. For it empties the soul, and makes it large. Pride swells the
soul up, and drives out Christ. God gives grace to the humble ; Christ
dwells in the humble soul. You know he was born in an humble virgin's
womb, and he is new born in the womb of an humble soul. _ Preserve
therefore humble, base conceits of ourselves ; that in us there is nothing
that is good, nothing worthy to be respected, that so Christ may dwell
largely in our hearts. Let us have no wit, no reason of our own, contrary
to Christ. Let us have no wills, no desires contrary to his. Let us even
give up the keys and the regiment* of our souls to him, and then he will
dwell largely there. Humility keeps him there. If his word be our
reason, his commandment our will, and his comfort our joy and delight,
then he will dwell largely in us, for there is nothing in us to oppose him.
But if we have several states of soul, distinct from his government, it is no
wonder we banish him, when we will not live by faith m him, but by our
wits, shifts, tricks, lusts, the examples of others, and by the spirit of the
world. It is no wonder, I say, that we savour only of earthly things il we
live thus. It is no wonder that Christ is not preserved m us if we be not
ruled by his Spirit. It is no wonder that he departs from us when we set
ourselves contrary to him, and have wills and reasons of our own repugnant
and disagreeable to his, and ways to get wealth, and to raise ourselves con-
trary to his gospel and truth. Will Christ rule m such a soul? No. Me
subdues all. The Spirit of Christ is like a mighty wind, as it is compared
by Christ to Nicodemus, John iii. 8, that beats all down before it. It we
cherish contrary desires and contrary delights to Christ, it is no wonder it
he delight not to dwell in such a soul.

* That is, ' government.' — G.

410

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING.

3. Beg of Christ likewise that he would stay with us; as they in the gospel,
when he made as if he would have gone forward from them, Luke xxiv. 29,
constrained him to stay, saying, ' Abide with us : for it is towards evening,
and the day is far spent ; ' and he went in to tarry with them. So, lay we
hold on Christ, by the means of salvation ; stay him with us by prayer and
importunity, especially when the night of death, and error, and superstition
comes. Say, ' Lord, night is near, stay with us, depart not from us.' Lay
an holy violence upon God, as Jacob did: ' Thou shall not go hence.' Lay
hold on him by prayer, and do not leave him till we have drawn virtue and
got some blessing from him ; he must be kept by entreaty.

4. And then desire him to perfume our souls for his dwelling, as the church,
Cant. iv. 16, ' Arise, north wind ; and blow, south ; that my beloved
may come into his garden.' Desire Christ by his Spirit to blow uppn us,
that our beloved may come into his garden, that he may find somewhat
there to solace himself withal — humility, love, pity, large and loving
hearts, as himself had, to do all good. Desire him to plant those blessed
spices of grace in our hearts, and that he would blow upon them by his
Spirit, that they may prosper and thrive, that so he may come into his
garden and solace himself. Let us still desire further and further com-
munion with him; never be content. As the church. Cant. i. 1, 'Let him
kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.' He hath been familiar, but I desire
more still. So every Christian soul that hath once entertained Christ is
never content till it be with Christ in heaven, but still desires a fuller
measure of comfort, grace, strength, and assurance. And why doth the
soul thus desire after him ? ' Oh his love is better than wine,' Cant. i. 2.
So saith the church, having had a sense and feeling of his love. ' Thy love
is sweeter than wine,' and therefore ' let him kiss me with the kisses of his
mouth.' Desire therefore a more nearer communion in his love ; for it is
sweeter than wine, being once tasted.

5. And having got enjoyment of communion with God, shut the soul to
other things. The comfort of his presence is a heaven upon earth, sweeter
than wine, and above all other things to be desired. Take we heed there-
fore that we grieve not his good Spirit, and force him to retire himself; that
we quench not his sweet motions by anything contrary to him. Those that
have guests which they respect will do nothing that may be offensive to
them. So let us watch over our souls, that nothing come in that may grieve
Christ, nor anything come forth to grieve his Spirit in us. Let us not
thrust ourselves into such occasions and company as may do or speak such
things as may grieve the Spirit of God in us. Let us neither grieve the
Spirit in ourselves, by cherishing that which is evil in our own hearts, nor
by thrusting ourselves into the company of those whom we know by
experience will grieve the Spirit. A man cannot go into bad company, but
he must either be grieved, or tainted, and corrupted. Who would redeem
familiarity and favour with them ? exchange comfort and sense of Christ's
Spirit for the favour of such men as grieve the Spirit in us ? No ; a soul
that walks in the strength of the comfort of Christ's dwelling in him must
be watchful and jealous over himself, and preserve heavenly motions, cherish
them, and make them strong, and banish all that is contrary.

Quest. But how shall I recover him again, if I have grieved the Spirit,
and lost the sense of his being in me ?

Sol. -I will name but one means. Observe how thou lost it, and recover
him hj the contrary. If thou wilt renew the experience of his love, and his
dweUing in thee comfortably, consider how didst thou lose him ? Was it

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 411

by negligence ? by omission of duties ? Didst thou not read when thou
mightest, or hear when thou mightest ? or gavest thou thy thoughts liberty
to range ? or didst thou not walk with God as thou shouldst ? didst thou
cast thyself into ill company, or cherish carnal desires ? Take a contrary
course then ; converse with those that are good ; stir up the grace of God
in thee by meditation, and by renewing thy purposes and resolutions; hear
as much as thou canst ; speak to God as much as thou canst ; maintain
communion with saints, &c. As thou lost it, so endeavour the recovery by
a contrary way, and then Christ will come again to the soul. We see.
Cant. V. 3-6, that after Christ had stood knocking and calling to his
spouse, ' Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled,' till
his head was filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night,
but found no entrance, he retired, and withdrew himself, because she
would not rise and put on her coat. But afterward, when she endeavoured
herself, and used contrary means to her former sluggishness, seeking him,
and saying, 'What is become of my beloved?' &c., then Christ came
again into his garden, returned to his spouse, and forgat the former
unkindness.

We deal with such a Saviour, that though we lose the sense of his presence
for a time, yet if we use contrary means, and knit ourselves to his ordi-
nances, at last we shall refind his love to our souls. Nay, he is so loving,
so indulgent, that he never upbraids us with our former sins ; as we see in
Peter, whom he upbraided not with his former denial. Who would not
maintain love, respect, and communion with such a Saviour as this,
especially considering what a sweet estate it is to have Christ with us at
all times, and in all estates, and so to have the love of God, for both go
together ? And what are all discouragements where the love of God in
Christ is ? What are all the creatures to God's love, to Christ ? Where
the soul is persuaded that it is in covenant and peace with God through
Christ, and when it knows that Christ's Spirit is in it, this is a comfort
above all discouragements whatsoever. Discouragements are carnal, out-
ward things ; the comforts are the presence of divine things. The Spirit
of Christ, whose presence drowns all things, it is precious above all
creatures, strength, beauty, wit, &c., yea, and prevalent above all the
aiHictioDS and sufferings in the world.

All afflictions cannot hinder the hfe of reason, and can they hinder the
life of grace ? No. Paul saith excellently, the more ' our outward man
decays,' the more we suffer in our outward man, ' the more the life of Christ
is manifest in us,' 2 Cor. iv. 16. So far are we from being hurt by any
outward sufferings in the world, or discouraged by them, that the life and
presence of Christ in us is thereby made more glorious, Christ triumphs
and rules the more, by how much the more outward opposition we have.

If God's love, and consequently Christ, be in us, what if all the creatures
were against us ? Is there not more in God and Christ, than in all the
creatures ? Made he not all things of nothing ? What made the martyrs
in the primitive church to sacrifice their blood so willingly and cheerfully '?
Because the love of God was manifested to them in Christ Jesus. His
name was manifested and declared as a sweet ointment poured forth, which
caused those virgins to follow him. The sense and apprehension of the love
of God, manifested by the Spirit of Christ, begat in them such a love to God
again, that was strong even to death. It engendered such an heat within,
that made them endure all the heat and flame without ; so that all the tor-
ments which the malice and wit of persecutors could devise, could not daunt

412 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING.

their invincible spirit ; but in all these things they were more than con-
querors, through him that loved them. A sweet state it is.

I beseech you, therefore, every day examine whether Christ be in you,
and in what measure he is in you ; and labour to give him more room in
your hearts. Will not the contrary daunt us ? else we are reprobates, refuse
creatures, and the devil is in us. But contrariwise, if he be in us, he will
fit us to be with him. He comes to us, that we may come to be with him ;
for why doth he dwell in us ? One main reason is, to fit us for heaven.
Let us labour, then, that he may be in us, that he may fit us for himself,
to dwell with him in heaven. Labour that none may rule us but his Spirit.
In death, what a comfort will it be, that Christ is in us. The Spirit of
Christ, that hath ruled me all my life, shall carry my soul to heaven, and
shall raise my dead body. If Christ be in us, what need we fear judg-
ment ? Will the head condemn the members ? Christ is in us while we
live, andthereforejoyfully we may expect judgment. Why? OurKedeemer,
our Saviour, our Head, our Husband, will be our Judge. Therefore, of all
estates in the world, get into Christ, and labour by all means to get Christ
into us, by prayer, by getting grace, &c., that he may delight and solace
himself in us. It is the best estate in the world.

Out of Christ, a man is as a branch cut from the vine, subject to the fire.
Out of him, a man is as a member cut from the head, cut from the body,
good for nothing, neither lively nor fruitful. Get into Christ : it is a state
of all grace, for all grace is derived to us from him. It is a state of com-
fort in life and death, and for ever. He is the ' second Adam ;' and as all
our misery is derived and communicated by being born of the first, from
whom sin and corruption is derived, and misery with sin, mortal diseases,
and all other misery, so, as soon as the * second Adam,' Christ, is got into
us, his Spirit reigns to glory with us : he never leaves us till he have made
us as himself. It should be our main endeavour in this world, therefore,
to get out of the cursed estate we are in by nature, and to get into Christ,
the ' second Adam,' and then we are safe. For there is more comfort in
him than there was sin and misery in the first.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

NOTE.

The ' Heavenly Conference between Christ and Mary' appeared originally in a
small 18mo volume in 1654. A second edition in 4to appeared in 1656. The title-
page of the latter will be found below.* It is usually appended to the Commentary
upon 2 Corinthians Chap. IV., 4to, 1656. Cf. Note, Vol. IV. page 308. G.

*A HEAVENLY
CONFEKENCE

BETWEEN

CHEI ST

AND

MART

After His

RESURRECTION

WHEREIN,

The intimate familiarity, and near relation between

Christ and a Beleever is discovered.

By the Reverend Richakd Sibbs, D.D.

LONDON,

Printed by S. G. for John Rothwell, and are to be sold at the

Fountain and Bear in Cheapside,

16 56.

TO .THE READER

Thk scope and business of this epistle is not so much to commend the
workman^ — -whose name is a sweet savour in the church — as to give thee a
short summary-view of the generals handled in this treatise. Though much
might be said of this eminent saint, if either detraction had fastened her
venomous nails in his precious name, or the testimony of the subscribers
of this epistle might give the book a freer admission into thy hands. This
only we shall crave leave to mind the reader of, that this bright star, who
sometimes with his light refreshed the souls of God's people while he
shone in the horizon of our church, set, as we may say, between the even-
ing of many shadows and the morning of a bright hoped-for Reformation ;
which, though it be for the present overcast, yet being so agreeable to the
mind of Jesus Christ, and ushered in with the groans and pra3'er6 of so many of
his saints, we doubt not but will in God's own time break forth gloriously, to
the dissipating of those clouds and fogs which at the present do eclipse and
darken it.

Now, as it is the wisdom of God, in bringing about his own designs, to
raise up fit and suitable instruments for the work of every 'generation, so it
is also the gracious dispensation of God to put seasonable words into the
mouths of those his servants, who by faith do fix their eyes on him for the
guidance of his blessed Spirit ; as every judicious reader may observe in
the works of this reverend divine, who foreseeing, as it were, what a
degeneracy of spirit professors in his time were falling apace into, that itch
of questions and disputings, like a noxious humour, beginning then to break
forth among professors,* like a skilful physician, applied himself to preserve
the vitals and essentials of religion, that the souls of his hearers, being
captivated with the inw^ard beauty and glory of Christ, and being led into
an experimental knowledge of heavenly truths, their spirits might not
evaporate and discharge themselves in endless, gainless, soul-unedifying,
and conscience-perplexing questions. For as it is in nature, a man that
hath tasted the sweetness of honey will not easily be persuaded that honey
is bitter, but he that hath only taken it up upon credit may soon be
baffled out of it, because no act can go higher than its principles ; and so
it is in religion. For those good souls that have embraced the truths of
Jesus Christ upon a supernatural principle, and experimented not only the
truth, but the goodness of them in their own souls, they are the clinched
Christians, the good hold-fast men, as Mr Fox styles some Christians in his
* In margin here, Pruritus dieputandi ecabies ecdeaice. — Sir H. Wotton — G.

416 TO THE READER.

days ; they are the even and steady walkers. Whereas those that have
only a ' form of godliness,' 2 Tim. iii. 5, a shght tincture — who have only
out of novelty and curiosity, or pride and ambition, or other self ends, pro-
fessed religion — will prove giddy and unconstant, ' like clouds carried about
with every blast,' Eph. iv. 14, and while they promise themselves liberty,
be a prey to the net of every fancy and opinion.

To the sound and practical Christian that is not squeesy-stomached,*
will the truths in this treatise be grateful. Supposing therefore and desiring,
if thou art not, thou mayest be such a one, here is offered to thy con-
sideration a divine and heavenly discourse betwixt Christ and Mary,
between a soul-burthened sinner and a burthen-removing Saviour.

That thou mayest here see how diligent Mary is to seek, how ready
Christ is to be found. Mary hath her heart brimful of sorrow ; Christ
comes, as it were, ' leaping over the mountains,' Cant. ii. 8, with comfort
and bowels of compassion. Mary was in a strong pang of affection, nay,
her affections were wound so high that her expressions seem broken ; and
her actions might seem to savour of irregularity, were it not that the excel-
lency of the object did warrant the height of her affection, and the com-
passion of Christ was large enough, not only to interpret for the best, but
also to pardon and cover all her infirmities. The woman was better at her
affections than expressions. ' They have taken away my Lord.' She
speaks at random, names nobody, whether Jews, or disciples, or soldiers.
But see the strength of her faith. She is not ashamed to call him ' Lord,'
even in the lowest state of humiliation. Though Christ be reproached, per-
secuted, despised, rejected, dead, buried, yet he shall be Mary's Lord. Again,
' I know not where they have laid him.' She dreams of a bodily asporta-
tion! and resting of Christ somewhere, and speaks with indignation, as if
she looked upon it as an indignity or incivility, na}', of cruelty — ScBvitum est
in cadavera, savitum est in ossa, sccvitum est in cineres (Cyprian) — of the
Roman emperors' cruelty, to remove a dead body («). Wlaat was done to
Christ, Mary takes it as done to her ; and, good heart, she thinks she hath
so much right to him, that he should not be stirred without her knowledge.
And ' I knov/ not where,' &c.

Now while Mary is seeking Christ — who is never far absent from a seek-
ing soul — he stands at her back. Christ is nearer to us many times than
we think of. Sometimes a poor soul wants the sight of comfort more than
matter of comfort, and is, like Hagar, weeping for water when the well is
hard by. Seeking of Christ is the soul's duty ; but Christ manifesting
himself is the soul's comfort. Mary turned herself, and she saw Jesus.
Gerson saith, the angels rose up at the presence of Christ, which Mary
seeing, made her turn about.]: But omitting that conjecture, the original
word sr^£(psiydai is sometimes used for a turning of the face, but most fre-
quently for a turning of the whole body. But to put it out of doubt here,
it is said exegetically, s6r^a(prj sic to. o'ttigm, ' she turned herself back.' The
same phrase the Septuagint § use of Lot's wife looking back (b). Many
times Christ hath his face towards us, when we have our backs upon him ;
and therefore if thou wouldst find Christ, turn thyself to him.

* That is, ' queezy,' ' squeamish,' = rising on the stomach. — Q-

t That is, 'a carrying away.' Cf. Eichardson, sitb voce. — G.

% In margin here, ' Ideo couversa est quia angeli assurreserunt presentise Christi.
— Gerson.

§ Kai scrs/SXs-vl/sy rj yvvri ahrou sig roc h'KiSW, i.e., se domum versus praeter virutn
suum qui subsequebatur ipsam. — Junius in anal, in Gen.

TO THE READER. 417

Again, Here thou mayest see the true Joseph, He knows Mary when
she knows not him, but takes him for the gardener. Christ is always
beforehand with us in his grace. He loves us before we love him, and calls
us before we call him. Mary travails with desires to find Christ, and Christ
is full of yearnings towards her. Like Joseph, he could I'estrain no longer,
and because the general manifestations of Christ wrought little, he calls her
by her name, ' Mary ;' and she being a sheep of Christ, ' knows his voice,'
and answers him with a title of dignity, Eahboni ; that is to say, ' My
Master.'

We may see here that discoveries of grace are not fruitless. They stir
up believers' reverence and obedience. ' Let us sin because grace abounds,'
is the devil's application of Christ's doctrine, Rom. vi. 1.

These and several other particulars are with much brevity, spirituality,
and perspicuity handled in this treatise, and with that liveliness that they
shew they come from one whose own heart savoured what he taught to
others. The largest part of this book is spent upon that sweet doctrine,
viz., a believers interest in God as a Father, and the comforts that flow from
that siceet relation. The foundation of our relation to God Is here handled,
and how God is first a Father to Christ, and in him to us. What can be
more comfortable In this earthly, interest-shaking, disjointing, confounding
age, than to clear up our soul's interest in God ? Tolle mewn, et tolle deum,
as he said (c). It were better for me there were no God, than that he
should not be my God. This will be thy comfort, that when thou canst
not say. My state, my liberty, my house, my land, my friend, my trade,
thou mayest be able to say, * My Father, my God.' If therefore thou
savourest the things of God, this subject will be acceptable and grateful to
thee ; and if this treatise may be any ways instrumental for putting thee upon
study how to get It, or upon practice how to improve it, or in case thy
soul sits in darkness, how to endear and clear thy Interest, the publishers
shall have much of their aim, and thou wilt have no cause to repent thy
cost in buying, or thy pains in reading. We shall add no more than this.
Blessed Is that man or woman that hath an Interest in him who Is the
Father of Jesus Christ by eternal generation, and of all believers In Christ
by adoption and regeneration ; In which inheritance and portion, that thou
mayest have a share, shall be the prayer of

Thy soul's and thy faith's servants in the work of the ministry
for Jesus' sake,

Simon Ash.*
James Nalton.*
Joseph Church.*

* For notices of these names, see Vol. IV. page 311.— G.

vol. VI.

A HEAVENLY DISCOURSE BETWEEN CHRIST
AND MARY. AFTER HIS RESURRECTION.

Jesiis saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and said to him, Eabboni :
that is to say, Master. And Jesus said to her, Touch me not ; for I a)a
not yet ascended to mj Father : but go to my brethren, and say to them, I
ascend to my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God. —
John XX. 1(3.

The same love of Christ that drew him from heaven to the womb of the
virgin, from the womb of the virgin to the cross, and from the cross to the
grave, the same love of Christ moved him to discover himself after he was
risen from the grave to them that he knew did entirely and wonderfully
love him. And therefore, before he would ascend to heaven, he did vouch-
safe many apparitions* and discoveries of himself, partly to instruct them
in the certainty of his resurrection, and partly, but especially, to comfort
them : those that he knew did love him.

His first apparition of all was made to Mary, the woman out of whom
he had cast seven devils, Luke viii. 2. She was much beholding to him,
and therefore loved much, Luke vii. 47. No sex may discourage any
sinner from Christ. She expresseth her love of Christ by her desire of
finding him, by her seeking and weeping, notwithstanding all impediments,
before she found him. As she wept, she stooped down and looked into
the sepulchre, and there saw two angels in white: a colour of glory, purity,
and joy, because it was a time of joy. They were one at the head, and
the other at the feet. As in the law, when the mercy- seat was made, two
cherubims were also framed, and placed one at the one end, and the other
at the other end thereof, with their faces looking one towards another,
Exod. XXV. 20. And when Christ was risen, there were two angels, one at
the head, another at the feet, to shew that peace was to be expected in the
true propitiatory, Jesus Christ.

One at the head, the other at the feet of the body of Jesus. And they
sat there. It was a time of peace. Peace was made between heaven
and earth, God and man ; and here is a posture of peace, ' They sat
quietly.' In Christ, angels and we are at one ; God, and M-e, and all.
There is a recapitulation and gathering of all things in heaven and earth,
Col. i. 20.

* That is, ' appearances.' — G.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

419

A T^.-^fff ' J^'^ attended on Christ in all the passages of his life and
death tm they brought hina to heaven.* They brought^news of hi bi th
comforted him m his agony; they were at his resurrection, and you see
here they attend. At his ascension they accompany him. And Isthev
did o the Head, so they will_ to the members. In our infancy, they take

ut in l^d \T'^^;;y^^^*«' ^^ o"^ ^^^gers, they pitch their tents about
us, m our deaths, they carry our souls to Abraham's bosom, a place of

tTr'%1 f * °"- ^'^^T'?/°^' ^^'"' °^'" ^' *^ S^^^'' «"^- l^o'^ies to-
getl ei. That service and attendance they afibrded the Head they afford
to the members ; to mystical Christ as well as natural. Therefore let us
comtort ourselves in the service they did to Christ
nnS7' I'w'^'' *^' ,^PP^"tio^ of the angels, here is the speech of the

ween .; f^^'^'^'/'V ""'T'^ *^? ' ' ^^'^ ^^^^ '^' ^^'^ ^^ ^^^^«<^ of
weeping, lor Christ whom she sought was risen a^^ain

She answereth, ' Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know
not where they have laid him.'_ If it had been as she supposed, there had
been cause enough of her weeping, if her Lord had been taken away ; for
when the Lord is taken away, what remaineth that is comfortable ? And
It the Lord be not taken away, it matters not what is taken away. For he
IS all m all Carnal people, so they have their wealth,' and friends, and
comforts in the world, they care not what is taken away. But she is of
another mind 'They have taken away my Lord,' and what comfort can
i have if my Lord be taken away ?

But it was but the speech of an opinion ; she did but think it. And
there were two things might lead her, truth and probability, which is the
ioundation of opinion. ProhahiUty: he is not here, therefore he is taken
away. LnitJi: Christ promised he would rise again, therefore he would
take away himself. There was certain truth to ground faith, and weak
probability to ground opmion. Yet such is the nature of weak persons in
distress If there be probability and certain truth, vet they will be sure to
cleave to their probabilities. Oh, theirs be great sin ! Ay, but there is
greater mercy for foith to lay hold upon. So the presumptuous sinner
saith, God IS merciful.' Ay, but God hath excluded thee from heaven •
thou art an adulterer, a swearer, a filthy person ; thy opinion is gi-ounded
scarce upon probability. 'God is merciful,' but not to such sinners as
live m sms agamst reconciliation as thou dost, 1 Cor. vi. 9. Therefore
when one hath but probability to ground opinion, and the other certain
truth to ground faith, be so wise for our souls as to take the best and
leave the other. If she had remembered his promise to raise himself out
of the grave, she needed not to have doubted.

_ ' They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid
him. ' They have taken away.' She instanceth none. And when she
had thus said, she turneth her back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew
not that it was Jesus. The angels hold their peace when Christ speaks,
and it IS their place so to do.

But she knew not that it was Jesus in respect of her passion Her
senses were held partly by the power of God, and partly by a kind of
passion that was a cloud between her and Jesus, that she knew him not at
that time.

\\Tiat doth Jesus say to her ?

* In margin here, 'Ministry of angels towards Christ. Lnke ii. 9, 10; Luke
xxii. 43 ; John xii. 29 ; Acts i. 10 ; Heb. i. 14 ; Ps. xxxiv. 7 ; Luke xvi. 22 ; Mat.
XXIV. 31.' — G.

420 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

' ' Woman, why weepest thou ? whom seekest thou ? ' The first words
that ever Christ spake after his resurrection to them he appeared to, is,
' Woman, why weepest thou? ' It is a good question after Christ's resur-
rection. What cause of weeping when Christ is risen ? Our sins are
forgiven, because he, our head and surety, hath suffered death for us ; and
if Christ be risen again, why weep we ? If we be broken-hearted, humbled
sinners, that have interest in his death and resurrection, we have no cause
to grieve. It is therefore a good question to them that believe, ' Why
weepest thou ? whom seekest thou ? ' They were questions, not for satis-
faction to him — he knew it well enough — but to draw out her mind, and
to draw out by confession what God had hid in her heart, that he might
comfort her afterwards.

' But she, supposing him to be the gardener, said. Sir, if thou hast borne
him hence, tell me,' &c.

She had a misconceit of Christ, as if he had been the gardener. Be-
loved, so it is with a sinner, especially in times of desolation of spirit and
disconsolate condition. They present Christ to themselves as an enemy.
She in passion thinks Christ the gardener. Do not many, when they be
melancholy of body and troubled in mind, conceive of Christ as an austere
judge, that will undoubtedly damn such wretches as they are, who present
Christ to them^selves in that fashion, that the Scripture doth not ? Doth
not he bid all that be weary and heavy laden come to him ? Mat. xi. 28.
And yet they, out of passion, will present Christ to be an austere judge,
that will take them at their disadvantage, observe all their ways, and will
surely damn them.

It is a great violence that passion and opinion offers to truth, and to
saving truth, and the hardest matter in the world for a distressed con-
science to apprehend God aright, and to apprehend Christ aright. Secure
persons apprehend God under a false notion. They apprehend God as a
God all of mercy, and Christ as if he were not a * judge of the world ; as if
he observed them not, nor their sinful courses ; and therefore they care
not whether they serve him or no. Acts xvii. 31. And Satan presenteth
Christ all of mercy, and Satan and their hearts meeting together, the mis-
take is dangerous. It is a great art of faith, and an excellent skill, to
apprehend Christ suitable to our condition that we are in. When we be
in any sin, then think him a judge ; then think of Moses rather than of
Christ ; then think of Christ as one that will judge both quick and dead
for their hard and wicked actions. But when we be humble and broken-
hearted, and touched with sense of sin, present him as a sweet Saviour,
inviting and alluring all to come to him : ' Come to me, all ye,' &c.. Mat.
xi. 28 ; present^ him as a gentle shepherd; present him in all the sweet
relations he names himself by in the Scriptures, lest otherwise we do
Christ dishonour, and ourselves wrong, Isa. xl. 11.

' If thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I
will take him away.'

She was a likely woman indeed to take Christ away ; for a weak woman ^
to take a heavy body away ! But love thinks nothing impossible. Faith
and love agree in this, nothing is impossible. ' Love is strong as death,'
Cant. viii. 6. Neither love nor faith care for difficulties ; they arm the
Boul to break through all.

' Tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.'

One would think the dead body might have frighted the woman, and the
heavy body might have been above her strength. But she was in such an

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 421

ecstasy of love and desire, and grief for want of desire, that she considered
not well what she said.

They be words of passion ; and, indeed, if you observe the story of Mary
Magdalene, she was a woman of extremity in all conditions. Like Jonah
when he grieves, he grieves exceedingly ; when he rejoices, his joy is wound
to the highest pitch. So she was full of love when she loved, and full of
grief when she grieved, and full of joy when she joved. She had large
atlections. All were m the highest measure, and strained to the highest
pin m her ; and that made her say, ' If thou hast,' &c.

Jesus could not endure [to keep J her longer in this perplexed condition.
i±e was too merciful ; and therefore saith, ' Mary.' She turned to him,
and saith, ' Rabboni,' which is to say, Master.
And Jesus said to her, ' Mary.'

The words are a sweet and loving intercourse between Christ and Mary.
In a seasonable time, when she was in all her perplexitv and depth of sor-
row for loss of her Lord, Christ seasonably at length, as not being able to
hold any longer, but must needs discover himself, saith to her, 'Mary.'
^ You see, first of all, Christ beginneth, and saith, ' Mary ;' she answereth,
in the second place, and saith, ' Rabboni ;' and till Christ begins, no voice
zn the world can do any good. The angels they spake to her, but till
Christ spake nothing could comfort her. Christ began, and till Christ
began nothing would comfort Mary. Christ began himself, and used but
one word. It is a word, and but one word. Nothing will comfort but
the word of Christ. The word that comforted her when he spake, and it
was butone word, and yet enough, there was such fulness of spirit and
comfort in that one word. And she answereth with one word again.

You may ask why they spake but one word. Beloved, he was full of
afiection, and she was full of affection also, too full to express themselves
in many words. As it is in grief, grief sometimes may be so great that
scarce any words are able to express it : ingentes dolores stupent ; and if
any words, then broken words, which shew fulness of affection rather than
any distinct sense. Christ was so full, and she so full, that a word dis-
covers. And indeed there was so much sense, and so much love, so much
contained in these httle words ' Mary' and 'Rabboni,' that it is impossible
to express them shorter ; and her passion would not stay any longer dis-
course. It was by v/ords, and by one word, ' Mary.' It was by'a word
which sheweth he took notice of her. Christ knows the names of the
stars ; he knows everything by name. He knows everything of a man,
to the very hair. He knows their parts, and their very excrements of their
parts. He knew her, and acknowledged her too : ' Mary.'

1. It is a word of knowledge, and familiar acquaintance, and acknow-
ledgment.

2. It is a word of compassion ; because he had held her long, and now
could not longer. He pitieth the state she was in. He saw her ready to
sink for grief and melt for sorrow, and therefore he said, ' Mary.'

3. As it is a word of compassion, so it is a word full of exceeding love.

4. And it is a word of peculiar appropriation, ' Mary,' whom I have so
niuch respected heretofore. And a word of satisfaction on his part, out of
his pity, and out of his love, and former familiarity and acquaintance.
' Mary,' I am the man that thou seekest ; I know what all thy seekings
tend to. Thou wantest him whom thou lovest ; thou wantest me ; I am
he whom thou seekest.

She answered him again, ' Rabboni,' which is interpreted, Master. She

422 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

returned him an answer again ; she spake to him. He first began, then
she follows. She found the virtue of his speech in her heart. There was
an influence of it to her heart ; and his love witnessing to her heart, raised
her love to him again. So it w-as an answer of Christ's speech, and from
the same afiection : an answer of love, and an answer of exceeding large
affection and satisfaction to her soul. my ' liabboni,' the soul of my
soul, the life of my life, my joy, my rock, my all that can" be dear to me.
' Rabboni,' I have enough. As he desired to give her satisfaction, so she
takes satisfaction in the word. And yet it was not full satisfaction ; for
after she clasps about him, and would not let him go. It was an afi"ection
that stirred up much desire more and more to have communion with him,
so that he was fain to check her afterward : ' Touch me not, for I am not
yet ascended to my Father.' She had not enough ; as indeed a believing,
afiectionate soul hath never enough till it be in heaven.

And thus you see the sweet intercourse upon the apparition and first
discovery of Christ to Mary. He spake to her, and she answered him
again with the same afiection. And it is a word of dependence, as it is
fit, ' Rabboni, my Master.' It is not only a word of honour, not any
superior, but a superior in way of teaching. There was submission of
conscience to the ' Rabboni,' as the ' Rabboni,' labouring to sit in the con-
sciences of people. It is a Syriac word, which signifieth in the original,
' multipHcation of knowledge ' in him that speaketh, and that laboureth to
breed much knowledge in him that is spoken to ; and therefore it is a word
of great respect and dependence (d).

She might well call him ' Rabboni,' for he was ' Master of masters,'
' Rabboni of rabbonis,' the angel of the covenant, the great doctor of the
church, the great ' Gamaliel,' at whose feet all must sit and be taught.
So you see what sense and affections are in these little words. The ful-
ness of heart that was in this couple cannot be expressed, were it possible
to say all that could be said. And therefore we leave the hypothesis, and
come to make application of it to ourselves.

Ohs. 1. First, We may learn here, that till Christ himself discovers himself,
no teaching will serve the turn. No. The teaching of angels will not serve the
turn, till Christ himself by his Holy Spirit discovers himself. When Christ
doth it, it is done. And therefore it should teach us so to attend upon
the ministry as to look up to the great doctor that hath his chair in
heaven, and teacheth the heart.* If he teach, it is no matter how dull
the scholar is. He is able to make any scholar, if he instruct. I will not
enlarge the point, because there be particular places wherein they will be
enlarged.

Ohs. 2. The second thing I will observe is this, that Christ, ivhen he
teacheth, he doth it hi/ tvords, not hij crucifixes, not by sights. We lost our
salvation and all our happiness by the ear, and we must come to it by the
ear again. Adam, by hearkening to Eve, and Eve to the serpent, lost all ;
and we must recover salvation therefore by the ear. As we have heard,
so we shall see. We must first hear, and then see. Life cometh in at
the ear as well as death. Faith, you know, is the quickening of a Chris-
tian, the spiritual life of a Christian. Now, faith comes by hearing ; and
therefore I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, set aside prejudice, and
meekly attend God's ordinances. Do not consider who we are ; we are
but poor ministers, frail men as yourselves. But consider the Lord, that
is pleased to conve}' life, and salvation, and grace, and whatsoever is fit to
* In margin here, ' Cathedram habet in ccclis qui corda docet.' — G.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. ^OQ

word 9 V?. ''''f but one word ' Mary ;' and is there so much force in one
f . !,' ""^^^ '^ '' '^"'^^'"^^ by Christ. One word comin- frorn PhH^^
and set on the heart by the Spirit of Christ, hath a m^'hTeffica^v S

i:" "^"^ITTfrf things;^,^.,/.,. tJtfbTJone^i
wciij uone , jLet tnere be hwht : therp wn« lifrL+ ' q^ i«+ ti it,, .

the understanding, and the!. h^U Sently'° So'iral^St's

cures, he said the word, and it was done.^ So in^dl spir Lfcure le

him say the word, it is done. Nay, a very look of rhvJ^ ,-f ff I" -1

along with it is able to convert t^'^ouT t/lfc^^^^^^^^^^

«.mr. Christ looked on Peter, he wept bitterly."^ What w 1 his word do

when his look will do so much ? It las but a word, anT but onlwo^I •

he^L Mat viht' rv l' 'u ''^, '''''''' ' '''' ^^ ---'* 'bill be
1 eaied. Mat viii. 8 This should make us desire that Christ would sneak

m^2t ^fl^'^'V' '^ ^^^^' '^'' be would clothe the woid of men
mightily with his word and with his Spirit; and then they will be miZy

ZZ'fr^""^ ^2f'; ^"^ ^^^•^' ^"^ ^* ^- ^ P-o-a.ft word T was
full of affection. She knew it well enough : ' Maiy.' What » to call her

rowrpS'no;.""^'^' '^ '^^' ^^^"^^°^^^^ --^ ^^ --^^^7:!! t:

Obs. 4. But to go on You see here again, that Christ must ber,in to m before
wecauansu-erhun He began to ^ Mary,' and then she said ' Rabboii '
All the passages of salvation are done by way of covenant, by way of com-
merce and intercourse between God and man, but God begins first. In
election, mdeed we choose him ; but he chooseth us first. And he knoweth
who are his, and we know him ; but he knows us first. And in calling we
answer, Ay ; _ but he calleth first, and we do but echo to his call. In fusti
hcation, forgiveness of sins, we accept of justification, and submit to the
nghteousness of Christ, and God's purpose of saving man that way ; but
he giveth faith first, for faith is the gift of God. We glorify him hel-e on
earth, bu it is from a result of God's glorifying us in heaven. Some ear-
nests we have, but they are of God's giving. All we do is but reflection of
his love first, or his knowledge first.

The Christian soul saith, ' Thou art my God ;' ay, but ho saith first, ' I
am thy salvation, Ps. xxxv. 3. As Austin saith, Xon Jncstm elicit anima,
Deus salus tua: when God saith, ' I am thy salvation,' it is easy for the
soul to say, ' Thou art my God' (.). And this may teach us in our devo-
tions, when we are to deal with God, when we are to bring to him anv
request to desire him first to reveal himself to us, desire Christ to reveal
himself by his Spirit to us. It is an error in the case of men's devotions.
Ihey thmk to bring something of their own strength, and to break in, as it
were, upon God, without his discovery first. But Paul saith. Gal. iv. 9,
We know God, or rather, are known of him.' We must desii-e that he

424 A HEAVENLY CONFEKENCE.

•would make known his heart to us first, and then we shall know him again ;
that he would speak to us by his Spirit, and then we shall answer to him
again. That he would say to our souls, he * is our salvation ; ' and then
we may lay claim to him, ' he is our God.' Desire the ' Spirit of revela-
tion,' to reveal his bowels and love to us in Christ by his Holy Spirit ; for
certainly, in every return of ours to Christ, God begins to us, all in all,
though not sensibly. But we ought to pray, every day more and more, for
a sensible revelation, that God would reveal his love to us in Christ. And
we cannot but answer. If Christ saith, ' Mary,' Mary cannot but answer,
' Rabboni.'

Obj. But you will say then, It is not our fault, but Christ's fault, if he
must begin. If God begins, we shall answer.

Ans. I answer briefly, that God doth always begin to us, and is before-
hand with us in all dealings with ourselves. He giveth us many motions,
and never withdraweth himself from us, but when he is despised and slighted
first ; therefore, let us take heed that we labour to answer Christ's call when
he doth call. If we slight it, then in a judicious* course he ceaseth to
speak further to us, if we slight his beginnings of revelations. There be
many degrees and passages to faith and assurance. If we do not observe
the beginning, how God begins to reveal himself to us by little and little,
speaking to us by his Spirit in our hearts when he begins, then in a
spiritual judgment sometimes he leaves us to ourselves. And therefore
let us regard all the motions of the Spirit, and all the speeches of the
Spirit of Christ, for he begins by little and little, else our consciences will
say afterward, we are not saved, because we would not be saved. We
would not yield to all the passages of salvation ; but when he was before-
hand with us, and offered many sweet motions, yet we loved our sins
better than our souls, and so repelled all. Therefore, I beseech you, do
not refuse the sweet messages from heaven, the gracious and sweet motions
of the Spirit of Christ.f Make much of them. God hath begun to you,
be sure to answer. Learn it of Mary. When Christ began, she set not
her heart and infidelity against it, but she opened her heart, and said,
' Rabboni ; ' learn, therefore, the duty of spiritual obedience. When God
speaks, ' Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,' 1 Sam. iii. 10. Do not
shut your ears to the motions of God's blessed Spirit ; do not harden your
hearts against his voice, but open your hearts as she did : ' Rabboni.'

Our Saviour Christ here saith, ' Mary ; ' but when ? After he had con-
cealed himself from her a long time. It is not presently ' Mary,' nor

* Rabboni.' He had concealed himself a great while. Christ doth not
usually open himself fully at first, though at first he doth in some degree ;
but he observeth degrees, as in the church in general. You see how that
he discovers himself in his gracious promises by little and little ; darkly
at first, and at last the Sun of righteousness ariseth clearly. So the day-star
ariseth in our hearts by degrees. It is a great while before Mary heareth
the satisfying speech of Christ, 'Mary.'

Quest. But why doth Christ thus conceal himself in regard of his fuller
manifestation ?

It is partly to try and exercise our faith and other graces ; and therefore
God doth seem to withdraw himself in the sense of his love.

1. To see whether ive can live by faith, or whether we be altogether
addicted to sense, as the world is, who live altogether by sense, and not
by faith.

* Qu. 'judicial' ?— G. t In margin here, ' Alloqueiiii Christo fideles respondent' — G.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 425

2. He would have our patience tried to the utmost. He would have
'patience have its perfect work,' James i. 4. She had much patience
to endure all this. But her patience had not a perfect work till Christ
Bpake.

3. Christ ivill stir up and quicken zeal and fervency in his children ; and
therefore he seemed to deny the woman of Canaan, Mat. xv. 21, seq., and
Mark vii. 27, 28 ; first, he giveth no answer but an harsh answer, ' A
dog.' And she works upon it: 'Though I am a dog, yet dogs have
crumbs.' All which denial was only to stir up zeal and earnestness. And
therefore though Christ doth not manifest himself to us at first, yet it is
to stir up zeal and affection to seek after him more earnestly. A notable
passage there is of this, Cant. iii. 16. The soul sought Christ, and sought
long, and sought in the use of all means ; but at length she waited, and
in waiting she found him.

4. Christ doth this to set a better price upon his jiresence u-hen he comes;
to make his pi'esence highly valued when he doth discover himself.
Desiderata din mar/is placent : things long desired please more sweetly.
And things, when wanted, are ingratiated to us, as warmth after cold, and
meat after hunger ; and so in every particular of this life. And therefore
God, to set a greater price on his presence, and that he would be held
more strongly when he doth reveal himself, he defers a long time. That
is one reason why he did defer revealing himself to Mary, that she might
have the more sweet contentment in him when he did reveal himself, as
indeed she had. Long deferring of a thing doth but enlarge the soul.
"Want enlargeth the desire and capacity of the soul, so doth love. Now,
when we want that we love, that emptieth the soul marvellously much ; it
mortifieth affection. When God keeps off a long time, and we see it is
God only must do it, then the affection is taken off from earthly things,
and the heart enlarged to God by love, and the want of the thing we love.
And .therefore we set a price on the thing, so that we are wonderfully
pleasing to God. It is very beneficial to ourselves. What lost Mary by
it ? So shall we lose nothing. We have it at last more abundantly. We
have it as a mighty favour. Mary taketh this as a new blessing altogether.
When things are kept long from us, and God only must discover, when the
heart is kept from second causes, the heart is enlarged. Certainly this
comes from God, and God should have all the glory of it. God is wise ;
and therefore makes us to stay a long time for that we do desire.

: We all of us are in Mary's case in a spiritual sense. Some times or
other we miss Christ, I mean the sweet sense of Christ. Lay this down
for a rule, that Christians ought to walk in sweet communion with God
and Christ, and that it ought to be the life of a Christian to maintain the
communion that Christ hath vouchsafed between us and himself. Then,
certainly, we lose Christ wonderfully; and not against our minds, but
willingly, by our own slighting of him, and by our own undervaluing of
him, or by our negligence or presumption. Christ, though he be low, yet
he is great, and he will have us to know his greatness. There must be
communion with due respect. One way or other we deprive ourselves of
the sense and sweetness of communion with Christ. What must we do,
then ? We must do as the woman did : turn over every stone ; use all
kind of means ; leave not one till we find him ; and when all means are
used, wait still. Persevere in waiting, as Peter speaks. Believers, wait ;
hold out in waiting, for Christ in his time will come. He cannot hold
long. As Joseph did suppress his love and affection for politic ends a

426 A HEAVENLY CONFEEENCE.

great while, Gen. xlv. 8, but his pity towards his brethren was such that
his bowels would not suffer him to conceal himself longer ; his passion was
above his policy : ' I am Joseph.' And so let us in the use of all things
seek Christ and the sweet sense of his love, which is better than life itself.
And, indeed, what is all without Christ ? Christ is so full of compassion,
he will not long suffer us to be prolonged, but will at length satisfy the
hungry soul, Ps. Ixiii. 5. How many promises have we to this end !

Take heed of such a temper of soul, as cares not whether we find Christ
or no. Oh take heed of that ! If we will seek him, seek him as Mary.
She sought him early in the morning ; she brake her sleep and sought him
with tears. If anything be to be sought with tears, it is Christ and com-
munion with him. She sought him instantly and constantly. She sought
him so, that no impediment could hinder her, she was so full of grief and
love.* She sought him with her whole heart, she waited in seeking. That
is the way to find Christ. Seek him early, in our younger times, in the
morning of our years. Oh that we could seek Christ as we seek our plea-
sures. We should find more pleasure in Christ than in all the pleasures
of the world, if we could persuade our base hearts so much. Seek him
above all other things. Awake with this resolution in our hearts, to find
Christ, never to be quiet till we ma}'' say with some comfort, ' I am Christ's,
and Christ is mine.' When we have him, we have all. Seek him with
tears, at length we are sure to find him. He hath bound himself, that if
we knock he will open ; and if we seek we shall find : if we seek wisdom
early with our whole hearts, entirely, sincerely. Seek Christ for Christ,
and then we shall be sure to find him, as she did. Thus seek him in the
word and sacraments, wherein he discovers himself familiarly. Seek him
in the temple — ' Christ was found in the temple,' Luke ii. 46 — and then
we shall be sure to find him both here and hereafter. Specially we shall
find him in our hearts. You see how familiarly he comes to us in the
word, speaks to us by a man like ourselves. And how familiarly by the
saci'ameut, by common bread and common wine, sanctified to do great
matters above nature, to strengthen faith. He cometh to us through our
laces, into our souls in the sacrament. He cometh to us, through our ears
in hearing the word, through our sight in seeing the bread broken. He
comes by familiar things, and by a familiar manner of conveying, as if he
should name every one, ' I come to thee, and give thee my body.' Think
with ourselves. Now Christ cometh to me ; when the minister reacheth the
bread and comes to me, think of heavenly bread, and of the gift of Christ
to me by means. And can he do it more familiarly ? Is it not as if he
would say, ' Mary '? And that is the excellency of the sacrament. It
conveyeth Christ to all the saints, and to every one in particular, as if he
named every one. And what an encouragement is this to answer again,
to open our hearts to receive him, together with the elements ! to embrace
Christ, join with Christ, and then to keep him when we have him ! Do
not lose him. He will not be so dealt withal. Remember the covenant
we have made to him. I beseech you, let these sweet considerations of
Christ dwell in us, and work on every one of our hearts. If they do good
on us here on earth, if we by faith lay hold on him, and have intercourse with
him, what will it be in the day of judgment ! How comfortable will it be
to hear him say to every one in particular, * Come thou, and thou, stand
on my right hand, sit and judge the world with me ?' 1 Cor. vi. 2. Doth
he know our names now on earth, and giveth to every one particularly by

* In margin here, ' Mat. xsviii. 1, Mark xvi. 9, Luke xxiv. 1, John xx. 25.' — G.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 427

Mmself, if we come worthily ? and will not he know us then ? Oh, that
IS lar more worth than the world's good, to know us then and to call us by
our names ! Therefore, I beseech you, be acquainted with Christ. Have
intercourse, all we can, with him in the word and sacraments, and never
rest till we find this sweet result in the use of the means, ' that he is ours,
and we are his.'

Take heed therefore in these times, desperately addicted to formality and
popery. I say, take heed, we do depend not upon any outward thin", but
looli to Christ m all his ordinances, look to the Spirit. All God's children,
tne church of the first-born, they are 6-ob!da>iroc, such as are 'taught of
trod. Who can take away the opposite disposition of man's nature to
goodness, but God by his Spirit ? Who can shine into the soul, and quicken
the soul, but Christ by his Spirit ? Who is above the heart and con-
science, but Christ by his Spirit ? Therefore take heed of formality ; sub-
mit your hearts to the great prophet of the church, that Moses speaketh of,
JJeut. xviii. 18, who shall be the great teacher of the church ; lift up our
hearts to him, that he would teach our hearts, and remove the natural dis-
position that IS in us ; that he would * take oii' the veil from our hearts,'
and teach not only what to do, but teach the very doing of them. Teach
us to hate what is ill, teach us to believe, and to resist all Satan's tempta-
^ons. Who can teach but the great teacher, whose chair is in heaven ?
Therefore take heed of depending on formal things. Lift your hearts to
God, that he would join his teaching with all other teachings. This cannot
be too much stood upon. I beseech you, therefore, take it to heart.
_ Give me leave, therefore, to add a few things more. If Christ speaketh
in general to Mary, she answereth in general ; and when he speaks aloof
to her, she answereth aloof to him, afar off, and never gave him a direct
answer, till he gave a direct word to her. When he said, ' Mary,' she gave
him a direct answer, ' Rabboui ;' not before. I beseech you, therefore, let
us not rest in general promises and the general graces, that be so much
stood on by some, that God hath a like respect to all. Trust not to that.
We must not enter into his secrets, but let us obey his precepts and com-
mandments. And withal remember this, when we hear of a general mercy
and commandment for all nations to beheve, and that Christ came to save a
world of sinners, alas ! what is that to me, unless thou by thy Holy Spirit
speakest to my soul, and sayest in particular, ' I am thy salvation,' and
speakest familiarly to my soul ? Generals are in some degrees comfortable.
But if I find not particular interest by the witness of thy Holy Spirit to my
soul, if thou sayest not to my soul, ' I am thine, and thou art mine,' all
is to little purpose. Therefore in the desires of our souls in prayer, let us
desire the Lord to reveal himself in particular. We trust too much in
generals. God is merciful, and Christ came to redeem the world. They
be truths, and good foundations for to found faith upon, but they will not
do the deed, till by daily prayer we seek to the Lord, that he would in a
particular manner reveal himself to us. This doth Paul pray for, Eph.
i. 17, ' that God would vouchsafe to them the Spirit of revelation.' And
this is the office of the Holy Spirit. His special office is, to reveal to eveiy
one in particular his estate and condition God-ward. The Holy Ghost
knoweth the secrets in the breast of God, and in our own hearts.* Now
the Holy Ghost can reveal the particular love that lieth in God's breast
to our particular souls. And therefore we should desire God, that the
Holy Spirit may be sent to seal to us our particular salvation, and never
* In margin here, ' Spiritus Dei, et Dei el hominis secreta cognoscit.' — G.

428

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

be quiet till we be sealed in particular assurance, that we be tbey whom
Christ came to save. This we ought to labour for. If we labour for it,
we shall have it some time or other, for God loveth to be fiimiliar with his
children. He loveth not to be strange to them, if they seek his love, but
to reveal himself first or last. And few seek it, but God revealeth himself
by his Spirit to them before they die ; if he doth not, they are sure of it
in heaven. And therefore they that be against particulars, they are enemies
to their own salvation. Mary regarded not, while Christ spake of generals,
but when he came to particulars, then ' Rabboni,' and not before.

* Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not ; I am not yet ascended to my
Father,' &c.

This verse containeth Christ's prohibition, or Christ's commission or
charge. His prohibition, ' Touch me not ;' and his reason, ' for I am not
yet ascended to my Father.'

His charge, ' Go to my brethren ;' and then directeth what to say to them :
' I ascend to my Father, and your Father ; to my God, and your God.'

The words be very natural, and need no breaking up to you. But I shall
handle them, as they follow one another.

' Jesus said to her, Touch me not.'

* Touch me not.' Why ? He would have Thomas not only touch, but
to put his finger into his side ; that is more than touching him, John xx. 27.
But our Saviour's intent is to meet with a disposition in Mary something
carnal, something low and mean, in regard of this gloi'ious occasion, Christ
being now risen and glorified, for his resurrection was the first degree of his
glorification. And therefore, ' Touch me not.' She came with too much a
carnal mind to touch him, when she said, Rabboni. It was not satisfaction
enough for her to answer, ' Rabboni,' but she runneth to him, and claspeth
him, and clingeth about him, as the affection of love did dictate to her.
But saith he, ' Touch me not' in such a mannei\ This is not a fit manner
for thee to touch me in, now I am risen again. In a word, she had thought
to converse with Christ in as familiar a manner as before, when she poured
ointment on his head. He was the same person, but the case is altered.
That was in the days of his humiliation ; now he was risen again, and it
was the first degree of his glorification. There was another manner of
converse due to him ; and therefore, ' Touch me not.' Thou thinkest to
touch me as thou didst before, but thou must not do it. She was too much
addicted to his bodily presence.

1. It is that that men will labour after, and have laboured for, even from
the beginninfi of the ivorld, to be too much addicted to present things, and
to sense. They will worship Christ, but they must have a picture before
them. They will adore Christ, but they must bring his body down to a
piece of bread ; they must have a presence. And so instead of raising
their hearts to God and Christ in a heavenl}'' manner, they pull down God
and Christ to them. This the pride and base earthliness of man will do.
And therefore saith Christ, ' Touch me not' in that manner ; it is not
with me now as it was before. We must take heed of mean and base con-
ceits of Christ. What saith Paul, 2 Cor v. 16? 'I know no man now,
according to the flesh ; no, not Christ himself, now he is risen.' Christ
was of such a tribe, stature, had such gifts and qualities. What is that to
me ? Christ is now Lord of lords, and King of kings. He is glorious in
heaven, and so I conceive of him : ' I know no man after the flesh ; no,
not Christ himself.' I forget what he was on earth, and think of him
what he is now in heaven. Therefore to bring him down to our base con-

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 429

ceits, to sense, and the like, this is the humour of men that labour to
cross the scope ol the gospel. For why are men so addicted to outward
things outwai-d compliments? It is pride, it is Satanical pride. They
think that God IS delighted with whatsoever their folly is delighted withal
Because amongst men there must be a deal a-doing, therefore they think
God IS well pleased with such things. God is a Spirit, and though out-
ward things be necessary, yet all must not be turned outward, as in poperv
We must not bring God down to our foolish conceits, as if he were delighted
as we are, Joshua iv. 24. ^

2. It is ivonderful easy too. All outward things, any naughty* men have
them wih their sins.t Let a man perform a little outward compHment,
he may be what he will be, let him live as he will, and be possessed that
outward things will serve the turn. He is safe ; his conscience is daubed
up till God by sense of wrath awakeneth conscience ; and then they shall
tind it another matter to deal with God than by compliment.

3. There is also a great r/Iorij in outward thiur/s. There 'is commenda-
tions and men s observance of them, as in the Pharisees, and in poperv
Lut the spiritual worship of Christ hath no observance to the eye of the
woi-ld It IS between God and the soul. Men naturally love those things
that be glorious. It is said of Ephraim, that he loved to tread out the
corn but not to plough, Hosea x. 11 ; that is, Ephraim will take that
which is easy, but not that in God's worship which is hard. There be
two thiugsm God's service : an easy thing, which is outward comphment-
an hard thmg which is to trust him, to deny ourselves, to rely upon him
and live by faith.| And that Ephraim will not do. Ephraim will tread
the corn, because the heifer may eat corn ; but there be hard things in
rehgion which he will not practise. He will not plough. ' Touch me°not '
saith Christ. Thou hast not conceits spiritual enough to deal with me
now I am risen. '

But what is the reason ? ' Touch me not ; for I am not yet ascended to
my Father.' That seemeth to be a strong reason. But it seemeth to be
a contrary reason. Touch me not now, when my body is present ; but
touch me when I am gone, and removed out of sight of all flesh. Touch
me not now, when thou mayest touch me ; and touch me when there is aa
impossibihty of touching me. This is seemingly strange. But indeed
there is no contrariety in it : ' Touch me not; /or I am not yet ascended to
the Father.'

There is a double meaning of the words. First of all, ' Touch me not-
for I am not yet ascended,' &c. Thou needest not clasp and cling about
me, as if I would stay no more with you below ; ' I am not yet ascended
to the Father.' There will be time enough afterwards. For the word
* touch,' in the original, doth not signify merely to touch, but clasp, asso-
ciate, join, and solder with a thing (/).§ The Scripture speaking of the
evil man, you shall not touch him ; that is, not make him one with him.
The devil shall not take him from Christ and make him one with himself.
It is a strange word in the original : ' Thou claspest about me, thou dost
more than touch me, thou clingest to me and wilt not leave me, as if I
would go presently to the Father; but I am not yet ascended to the
Father.' That is one part of the meaning.

* That is, ' wicked.'— G. f In margin liere, 'Externa Deo placere nequeunt.'—G.
X In margin here, ' Ardiium et difficile est in fide vivere.'—G.
__§^In margin here, ' Jion solum tiginficat tangere, sed adhccrere, conglutinari, Isa.
lii. 11, 2 Cor. vi. 17. A tabernaculo im^iorum hominum reccdite, Num. xvi. 27.' G.

430 A HEA\^NLY CONFERENCE.

But there is a farther than that, ' I am not yet ascended to the Father ;
touch me not.' That is, it is another manner of touch that I look for —
better for thee, and in some regard for me — to touch me by the hand of
faith when I am ascended to the Father. Then touch me, and take thy
full of touching me. But for the present I am not ascended ; I have not
done all ; I have not manifested myself to my disciples in full. When I
am ascended, all is done, and then there is place for touch. And that I
take is meant here, I am not yet ascended to the Father. Thou thinkest
I have done all that is to be done, but thou art deceived. I must ascend
to the Father, and when I am there I expect to be touched after another
manner, after a gracious, spiritual manner, which is by faith ; as Augus-
tine saith well, ' Send up thy faith to heaven, and then thou touchest
Christ.'* As he said in the sacrament, * Quid paras dentem et ventrem?
Crede, et mandiicastl : What dost thou prepare thy teeth and stomach for ?
Believe, and thou hast eaten' (g). So the best communion with Christ is
to believe, till we come to heaven to have eternal communion with him.
This touch will do thee little good, and it pleaseth me as little. Wlien I
am ascended to the Father, then touch me at the full. So you see what
Christ meaneth.

The life of a Christian here, and the manner of the dispensation of Christ
here, is by promise, and by his Spirit ; that we should live by faith, and
not by sense. The life of sight is reserved for another world, when we
are fitted for it. She was not fit for a life of sense, but was to expect the
Holy Ghost from heaven ; to be filled with that, and then to be filled with
faith and love ; and then to have an holy communion with him in heaven.
But * I am not yet ascended.' Thus you see the meaning, ' Touch me not.'

There be two reasons of Christ's prohibition.

1. Her respects icere too carnal and ordinary, considering he was in the
state of glory. And then,

2. For that there xnll he time enough. Do not stand embracing of me,
there is a greater work for thee to do. Christ preferred the great work of
giving notice to his disciples of his resurrection, before the oflice of respect
and service to himself. Go about a duty, that I more regard a great deal :
* Go, tell my brethren I ascend,' &c. So that every part of the text yields
satisfaction to that prohibition.

' Go,' saith he, ' to my brethren.' I have another work for thee to do,
' Touch me not.' Thou clasps about me as if thou hadst nothing to do.
There is another work to do that pleaseth me better, and more fit for thee :
to comfort them that are in distress, my poor brethren and disciples. And
therefore * go to my brethren, and say unto them.' So that Christ prefers
a work of charity to his poor disciples before a work of compliment to his
own person. She cliugeth about him ; but ' this is not it I would have.'
Those poor souls are mourning and disconsolate for me, as if I were clean
taken away ; go to them, and prevent theu' farther sorrow.

God hath a wonderful respect to others. It is strange that Christ should
say, ' Go and be reconciled to thy brethren, and then ofier thy sacrifice,'
Mat. V. 24. As if he would have his own sacrifice neglected, rather than
we should not be reconciled to others. And so a work of charity and love
is preferred before an officimn and compliment to himself. Let us shew
our love to the first table in the second, our love to God by our love to
man. Everything hath its measure and time. Away therefore with this
over-much embracing and touching. Go thy way, thou hast another work
* Ih margin here, ' Mittefidem in caelum et tetigisti.' — G.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 431

to do : ' Go to my brethren.' And so you see, as I take it, tlio full mean-
ing of the words.

Observe the circumstances. Who must go ? Here is a commission and
command. And to whom ? To the disciples of Christ. And when doth
Christ bid her go ? When he was risen, and in the first estate of glory
What IS the message ? ' Tell my brethren I am ascending to my Father,
and your Father ; to my God, and your God.' It is worth your consider-
ing a little.

1. Who is sent? A woman. A woman to' be the apostle of apostles, to
be the teacher of the great teachers in the world. Mary Magdalene was
sent to instruct the apostles in the great articles of Christ's resurrection
and ascension to heaven. By a woman death came into the world, and
by a woman life was preached to the apostles ; because indeed she was
more affectionate, and affection taketh all. And that makes that sex more
addicted to religion, by the advantage of their affection; for religion is
merely a matter of affection. Though it must have judgment shine\efore
it, yet it is specially in the heart and affections. And she had shewed a
great deal of affection. She stood out when the rest went away, John
xix. 25. She was constant, and broke through all difficulties ; and then
God honoured her to be the first preacher of his resurrection.

God's course is to trust secrets in earthen vessels, that earthen vessels
should carry heavenly treasure ; and therefore stick not at the vessel, but
look to the treasure, 2 Cor. iv. 7. A woman may teach the greatest
apostle. Look not to the man, but to the message. Elias will not refuse
the meat because the raven brought it, 1 Kings xvii. 4. And a condemned
man will not refuse a pardon, because a mean man bringeth it. Take off
pride in spiritual respects. When God honours any man to bring news of
reconciliation, stoop to him, of what condition soever he be.

2. To icJiom must she r/o ? ' Go, tell mij brethren,' the apostles. Go to
the apostles, that are disconsolate men, now orphans, deprived of their
Master and Lord. Disconsolate men, and not in vain, so not without
cause ; for they had reason to be discomforted, not only for their want of
Christ, but for their own ill carriage towards Christ. One of them denieth
him, and the rest forsake him ; and yet ' my brethren,' ' go tell t)iij
brethren.'

3. When did he speak this ? After his resurrection, in the state of glory;
in the beginning of it, and when he is ascending to heaven ; and yet he
owneth them as brethren, though such brethren as had dealt most un-
brotherly with him.

But how came they to be his brethren ? And how come we to be
Christ's brother. Christ is the first-born of many brethren, liom. viii. 29.
He is the Son of God by nature ; and all others now, by grace and adop-
tion, Rom. viii. 17. Christ is the j^rimo-f/enitus amongst many brethren;
and in Christ we have one Father with Christ. We have one honour,
and we shall be all kings and heirs of heaven, as he is. ' If sons, then
heirs,' Gal. iv. 7 ; the apostle makes the coherence. Now we are all in
Christ sons of God, heirs with him. To go to the condition of nature
that he took, our nature ; and therefore having our flesh, he is our brother,
Heb. ii. 14. The very reprobate may say so. Yet that is a ground of
comfort, that he is a man as we are. But that is not the main thing con-
siderable. He is our brother in a spiritual respect, in regard of adoption.
He is the first Son of God, and we in him sons. He is the first heir of
God, and we in him are heirs. And therefore ' go to my brethren.'

482 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

Beloved.; it is a point of marvellous comfort, that Christ was not ashamed
to call them brethren, Ps. xxii. 22 : ' I will declare thy name among.st thy
brethren,' saith Christ. Our Saviour Christ alluded to that psalm in this
passage ; and so it is read, Heb. ii, 12, out of that psalm. Christ hath taken
all relations, that are comfortable, upon him towards us. ' He is the ever-
lasting Father, the Prince of peace,' Isa. ix. 6. He is ' a second Adam,'
and therefore a father in that regard. The first Adam is the fother of all
that perish ; the second Adam is the father of all that shall be saved. As
he is our brother, so our husband. He could not be our husband, except
he were our brother. He must take our nature, and be one with us, before
we can be one with him. He is our friend. Before this time he called
them friends, as you see in John : ' I will call you friends,' John xv. 15.
But here is a sweeter term, ' brethren.' There is no relation that hath any
comfort in it, but Christ hath taken it on him. He is our head, husband,
friend, father, brother, and whatsoever can convey comfort to us.* And
the truth of it is, he is these things more truly than any relation is made
true on earth. For these relations of husband and wife, and brother and
sister, and father and child, are but shadows of that everlasting relation
that Christ hath taken upon him ; the reality and truth itself is in Christ.
We think there is no brother, but the brother in flesh ; no father, but the
father in flesh. Alas ! these are but shadows, and quickly cease : ' the
fashion of the world passeth away,' 1 Cor. vii. 31. Brother is another
relation, whereof these are but shadows. These do but represent the best
things that are in heaven. Christ is the father, brother, friend, and what-
soever is comfortable in heaven ; therefore * go tell my brethren.'

Obj. Ay, but saith the poor soul, I that have been so sinful, so unworthy
a wretch, shall I have comfort in this, that Christ is my brother, and I am
Christ's ? I cannot do it.

Ans. 1. I profess thou canst not do it, ' flesh and blood must not teach it
thee,' thou must be taught by the Spirit of Christ. Bat consider how the
apostles used Christ. Thou canst not call Christ brother, because thou hast
been a sinner, and hast carried thyself unkindly to Christ. And did not the
disciples so ? Did not they leave him, and one of them deny him, and
that with oaths ? Therefore, whatsoever our sins have been, deny not our
relation to Christ. The poor prodigal said, ' I am not worthy to be called
a son,' I am not worthy to be called a servant, Luke xv. 21.

He denied not that he was a son, but he was unworthy of it. And so I
am unworthy to be a spouse and brother of Christ, yet do not our unfaith-
ful hearts so much pleasure, as to deny our relation.

The apostles were so dignified, as to be called the ' pillars of the world,'
Gal. ii. 9. But these left him, and yet for all that, in this time of their
desertion of him, ' go tell my brethren.' Therefore be not discouraged.
Go to Christ in our worst condition, in our greatest temptations, when our
hearts misgive us most that we have used God most unkindly, and Satan
plied us most with desperate temptations ; yet own him for our brother,
who owned his disciples when they dealt most unkindly with him.f I
beseech you, count it a comfort unvaluable, which no tongue is able to
express, that Christ after his resurrection should call ' brethren.' He
might well call them brethren after his resurrection, because then all debts

* In margin here, ' 1 Cor. xi. 3 ; 1 Cor. sii. 27 ; Eph. v. 23 ; 1 John ii. 2, seq. ;
Kev. xxii. 3, seq.' — G.

t In margin here, ' Tentatio est ad Christum eundi opporiunitas, ut nobis succurrat.^
— G.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 433

were discharged by his death. He had paid their debts, and now the
acquittance was due to them, because Christ as surety had paid all. Now
I am risen, ' go and tell my brethren so.' If we can make use of the death
and resurrection of Christ, and say, Christ hath died for my sins, and rose
again for my justification ; I will interest myself in his death, I will claim
the virtue of his resurrection ; then take the comfort of this. In popery,
they had much comfort in those dark times, when a company of proud,
carnal, beastly men ruled the roast according to their own lusts. These
clergymen made a great pother with fraternity and brotherhood. And if
they were of such a fraternity of Dominic or Francis, or merely in a friar's
cowl, it was not only satisfactory, but meritorious, they could not do amiss.
Away with these shadows. Here is the brotherhood that must comfort
Christians, that Christ owned us for brethren after his resurrection. He
paid dear for it, alas ! Are we worth so much, that God should become
man to die for us, to rise again for us, to justify us, and make us brethren ?
That infinite love, that God became man and died for us, and rose again
to own us for his brethren, will satisfy all doubts. Shall we doubt any-
thing of that love ? When he out of his free love will own us as brethren,
shall not we own him ? I confess it is a marvellous thing, in times of
temptation it is difficult to make use of it. Oh, but pray with the good
apostle, ' Lord, increase our faith,' Luke xvii. 5 ; with the poor man in the
gospel, * I believe ; Lord, help my unbelief,' Mark ix. 24. So when any
temptation cometh for our unworthiness and our undeserving, then think
Christ after his resurrection called his apostles ' brethren,' and he will be
content to be my brother, if I will believe he died for me, and I will cast
m3'self upon him ; therefore away with all doubts.

There be many other observations out of the words.

'(1.) Will you have the first ivords in estate of glorij, his first words after
death ? * Go and tell my brethren.' Think in a desperate extremity, think
of the sweet message he sent by Mary Magdalene to his unworthy ' brethren,'
that he died for, and [had] given his blood to make them his brethren.
Think of his free love to you. It is not for your worthiness or unworthi-
ness, but of his own free love, that he came from heaven to take your
nature. It is his own free love that he came to die ; and therefore conceive
not of worthiness nor unworthiness, but consider the command of God to
believe ; and if we perish, perish there. Cast ourselves on our brother,
that will own us in our worst condition. That is the grand use.

(2.) Again, If God owns us in his glorious condition, shall we he ashamed
of the doctrine of Christ, of the children of God, to own them ? What saith
Christ ? It is a terrible thunderbolt. ' He that is ashamed of me and of my
word before men, I will be ashamed of him before my heavenly Father,'
Mark viii. 38. Take heed of being ashamed to stand out a good cause, in
matters of religion. Christ was not ashamed to call us brethren when we
were at the worst, and he himself in a glorious condition ; he was in glory,
and the disciples drooping in consideration of their guilt, that they had
forsaken him, and yet ' brethren' still. And shall not we own him, that
owneth us in state of glory ? How shall we look that he will own us here-
after, when he trusteth us with his cause and glory, and we betray all to
pleasure such and such ? Can we look Christ in the face with comfort, if
we neglect his cause, his truth, and his church ?

(3.) Again, Make this use of it, Christ is our brother, and icill not he take
our parts ? Absalom was a disobedient son, yet Absalom would not let his
sister Tamar be abused ; he would be revenged of that. And will Christ

VOL. VI. EC

434 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

suffer his sister, his spouse, his church to he abused long ? Nay, will he
leave his * dove, his love, his undefiled one,' Cant. v. 2, where he hath
placed all his joy and contentment, to the malice and fury of the enemy
long ? Certainly he will not. Certainly he will be avenged on his enemies.
If nature, that he hath put into the wicked, sinful men, teach them to
revenge indignities offered to their kindred, will Christ suffer his brethren,
his sisters, to be abused ? ' Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?' Acts
ix. 4. Now he is in heaven, the church's case is his own. And therefore
comfort ourselves with that sweet relation. Christ hath undertaken to be
our brother in state of glory. What a comfort is it that we have a brother
in heaven ! What a comfort was it to the poor patriarchs, when they
thought with themselves, we have a brother, Joseph, that is the second
man in the kingdom ! And so, what a great comfort is it for poor Chris-
tians to think, that the second in heaven, that sitteth at God's right hand,
that is King of kings and Lord of lords, and that ruleth all, is our
brother ! Is not this a main comfort, yea, beyond all expression, if we
could make use of it by faith answerable to our trouble ? Therefore
go to Joseph, that hath laid up comfort for us. He hath comfort enough
for us, he hath treasures of comfort. Whatsoever is necessary for us,
we may have in Christ our elder brother. And therefore ' go to my
brethren.'

I beseech you, let us make a use of exhortation, to be stirred up, to
labour by faith to be one with Christ ; and then he will be our head, our
husband, our brother, our friend, our all. Say what you can, Christ
will be ' all in all 'to all his. He hath enough in him: ' Of his fulness
we shall receive, and grace for grace.' Oh labour to be one with
Christ. Do not lose such a comfort as is offered. He offereth himself
first to be our Saviour and Kedeemer, and then our brother ; never rest
therefore till we have part in Christ. And then labour to make use of, in
all temptations catch fast hold of, everything that is useful, as it is the
nature of faith to do, like Benhadad's servants, who made use of that word
' brother.' He is my ' brother,' said the king of Israel, as common offices
make kindred, 1 Kings xx. 33. He had but let pass the term of ' brother,'
and they would not let it go, but catch at it : ' Thy brother Benhadad.' We
see what wisdom flesh and blood can teach, to make an improvement of
any comfort in the world, if by kindred, or office, or any relation in the
world, they make use of them. And when we be in Christ, shall not
we make use of them, when we be troubled with sense of sin, or in despe-
rate conditions ? When Christ calleth us brother, shall not we answer,
' I am thy brother' ? Blessed be thy mercy and love, that descended so
low as to make me thy brother ! I beseech you, let us not lose the com-
forts we may have in the disciples' being called Christ's brethren, when
they were in some sort enemies. But he knew their hearts were sound,
and it was but their weakness ; therefore let no weakness discourage thee.
He will not ' quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed,' Mat.
xii. 20. Is thy heart right to Christ ? art thou not a false hypocrite, a
secret traitor to Christ, and to his cause and church ? Then be of good
comfort ; thou mayest go to Christ as to thy brother. Though Peter denied
him with his mouth, yet he confessed him with his heart. And therefore
• go tell my disciples,' and Peter — he hath most guilt, and therefore he hath
most need of comfort. Be thy guilt never so great, if thou wilt come into
covenant with God, here is mercy for thee, and therefore make this use of
it. > "Never forget, in your worst condition that may be, since Christ will

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 435

stoop SO low to own you to be brethren, to make use of it, if your hearts be
right towards him.

' Go to my brethren.' Now I come to the commission or charge given
to her. 'Go to my brethren.' Who is the party charged? ° Mary.'
Ajid what is her charge ? To go to the apostles under the sweet term of
' brethren.' When doth he call them so ? After his resurrection ; when
he was m the state of glory. What is the message ? It is very sweet.
Go, say to them, ' I ascend to my Father, and your Father ; to my God,
and your God.' ' I ascend ; ' that is, I presently am to ascend, in a very
short tune I shall ascend. It was but forty days between Easter and
Ascension, and all that time Christ appeared now and then. It is the
nature of faith, where it is glorious, for to present future things as if
present, especially when they be near. ' I ascend ; ' that is, I shall very
shortly ascend, and it is all one as if I ascend presently. To whom do I
ascend ? ' I ascend to nvj Father.' To « m>j Father.' That is not com-
fort enough. Therefore ' to your Father too.' ' I ascend to God.' That
is not comfort enough. Therefore 'to my God, and your God.' We shall
unfold the words as we come at them.

First, Mary Magdalene, a woman, a sinner, is used in the great work of
an apostle, to be an apostle to the apostles. I would there were that love
m all men to teach what they know ; and that humility in others, to bo
instructed in what they know not. It were a sweet conjunction if it were
so. She was a mean person to instruct the great apostles. But, beloved,
where there is a great deal of love, there they will teach what they know ;
and where there is humihty, there they will be taught what they know
not, though they be never so great. And God will humble the greatest
to learn of the meanest sometimes. Therefore he sendeth Mary to the
apostles.

I beseech you, in matters of salvation, stand not on terms. Let us take
truth from Christ, let us see God and Christ in it, see our own comfort in
it, not stand upon persons. Aquila and Priscilla teach the great men
knowledge. Acts xviii. 2, seq. And so it is. Sometimes mean persons are
honoured to be instruments of great comforts to persons greater than them-
selves. She is to go to the apostles under the name of brethren : ' Go tell
my brethren.' And she must go to the apostles that were Christ's brethren,
and owned to be so now, when he was in glory, when he was risen and
exempt from all abasements of the cross and grave, where he was held
captive three days under the dominion of sin, when he was freed from all
enemies of salvation, and had triumphed over all. ' Go tell my brethren.'
So you see there is a sweet affinity and nearness between Christ and his.
Christ took our nature on him for this end : he became flesh of our flesh,
and bone of our bone, that we spiritually might be flesh of his flesh and
bone of his bone. It is no comfort at all ; an inducing comfort it is, but no
actual, present comfort, that Christ was incarnate for us ; for all the world
might have comfort in that, Turks, Jews, Pagans, that had the nature of
man in them. And all have some comfort in it, as their nature is dignified ;
and that he took not on him the nature of angels, but the nature of man,
his spouse, his church it is that hath the comfort of it. Therefore it is not
sufficient that he be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh ; but we must
be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. We must be ingrafied and bap-
tised into him by faith, and then the term holdeth, and never till then ; so
that there is a sweet nearness between Christ and his. ' Brother ' is a
most comfortable relation. It is a comfort that he took our natm-e upon

436

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him, that God would take ' dust and ashes,' earth, into the unity of his per-
son. For God to become man is a great dignifying of man's nature. But
to take not only our nature on him, but to take our person particularly near
to him ; thou and thou to be a member of Christ, there is the honour of
it. It induceth us to come to Christ that hath loved our nature so much.
But the other is an actual, present comfort, when we can say, ' I am my
beloved's, and my beloved is mine.'

Our hearts are too narrow a great deal to embrace the whole comfort that
this word affords unto us, that Christ should own us as his brother after
his resurrection, for that sheweth a reconciliation. ' Brother ' is a term of
friendship, nay, more than a term of reconciliation, for a man may be recon-
ciled to an enemy ; but it is a term of amity, to shew that when we believe
in Christ and are one with him, our sins are quitted ; death is overcome ;
Satan's head is crushed when God is reconciled. What have they to do
with us ? They are only to serve our turns to bring us to heaven, and fit
us for it. I beseech you, consider of the excellent freedom and dignity of
a Christian ; his freedom in that he is the brother of Christ ; free from all,
being owned by Christ after his resurrection, all being quit by his death
who was our surety, else he should be in the grave to this day. And then
think of our dignity, to be brother to him that is King of heaven. Lord of
lords, ruler of the whole world ; that hath all things subject to him. Oh
that our hearts were enlarged to conceive the wonderful comfort that every
Christian hath in this relation ! * Go tell my apostles,' under the sweet
term of ' brethren.'

Who art thou, will Satan say, flesh and blood, a piece of earth, wretched
sot ; wilt thou claim kindred of Christ ?

Ay, saith the Christian, believing soul, it is true. If it were my own
worthiness it were another matter, but I will give him the he. When he
owned me for his brother after his resurrection, shall I deny the relation ?
Therefore never believe Satan's tempting words and sinful flesh ; for Satan
cometh to us in our own flesh, and maketh us think God and Christ to be
such and such. Ay, but what saith Christ himself ? Believe him and not
Satan, that cometh to thee in thy own despairing, dark, doubting flesh.
Believe the word of Christ, who calleth thee brother, if thou believest on
him, and castest thyself upon him.

This sheweth the dignity of a Christian when he is once in Christ, the
excellent, superexcellent, transcendent glory of a Christian. When they
told our Saviour Christ that his mother and brethren were to speak with
him, saith he, * They that hear my word and do it, they are my brother, and
Bister, and my mother,' Luke viii. 21. This is the excellency of a Christian,
that he is of so near a kin to Christ. When we believe Christ, it is all one
as if we conceived Christ, as if we were brothers to Christ, as if we were
of the nearest kindred to him. Nay, it is more ; he preferreth mother
before mother, brother before brother ; mother in spirit before mother in
the flesh, and brother in spirit before all other brothers. Therefore an
excellent thing to be a Christian ! When once a Christian giveth himself to
Christ, and denieth his own doubting, despairing heart, which is the greatest
enemy he hath, 1. Then what belongeth to him ? Then God is his, and
Christ is his ; he must have an inheritance ; he is fellow -heir without ;* all
are his. 2. What carrieth he in him ? He carrieth in him the Spifit of
the Father and the Son, and the graces of the Spirit, which make him lovely
to God. 3. What cometh from him ? Having the precious graces of the
* Qu. ' without doubt ' ?— Ed,

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 437

Holy Ghost in him, what can come from him as a Christian but grace and
comfort to others ? He is a tree of righteousness ; and what can come
from a good tree but good fruit ? So far he is so.

So if you regard what belongeth to them, what is in them, the inherit-
ance they shall have, or what cometh from a Christian, that is, brother of
Christ, he is an excellent person, more excellent than his neighbour. There
is no man in the world, never so great, but is a base person in comparison
of a Christian. What will all be ere long ? If a man be not in Christ,
these things will add to our vexation. It will be a misery to have had
happiness ; the greater will be the misery when they must be parted withal.
And therefore raise your hearts to consider of the excellent condition of a
Christian when he is once the brother of Christ.

I confess it is an hidden dignity ; as Paul saith, * Our life is hid with
Christ in God,' Col. iii. 3. We have a life, a glorious life, but it is hid.
It is dark ; sometimes under melancholy, sometimes under temptations,
sometimes under the afflictions of the world and disgrace, and so it is an
hidden excellency, but it is a true excellency. The world knoweth us not
more than they know God and Christ. But it is no matter, God knoweth
us by name. He knew Mary by name, as it is said in Isaiah, ' I have
called thee by name,' xlv. 3. He is a shepherd, that knoweth his sheep
by name, and is known of them. He knoweth thee, and thee, and thee,
by name ; yea, and the hairs of thy head are numbered ; and therefore it
matters not though thy dignities be hid with the world. Yet God knoweth
them. He hath written all thy members in a book, and he hath a book of
remembrance of thee. And therefore it is no matter though it be an
hidden dignity. It is a true dignity to be a brother of Christ.

Let us oppose this to the disgrace of the world, and to all temptations
of discouragement whatsoever. What are all discouragements to this ?
They fall all before this, that we are the sons of God and brethren of
Christ. What can discourage a man that is thus apprehensive of this
excellency upon good terms ? I will enlarge the point no further, but leave
it to your own meditations, and the Spirit of God work with it !

' Go to my brethren.' When doth he bid her go ? Now after his
resurrection, when he was to ascend to heaven. The first degree of his
glory was his resurrection, after his lowest abasement in the grave. You
see that honour doth not change Christ's disposition, as it doth amongst
men. When they be advanced to great places, they will not look on their
old friends and acquaintance; but Christ hath no such disposition, he
owneth his poor disciples in their greatest abasements : ' Go tell my
brethren,' Now when he was in a state of glory, ready to go to heaven, and
he giveth them a more comfortable title now than ever before. In the
gospel he called them ' servants,' and ' friends,' and ' apostles,' and
' disciples ;' but now ' brethren,' a word of all sweetness, and nothing but
sweetness. ' Go tell my brethren' presently ; Christ would have no delay,
for he saw they had present need. Christ's love is a quickening love, and
the fruits of it are very speedy. There is more than angelical swiftness m
Christ when there is need of him. God helpeth at need, in the most
seasonable time, and he knoweth the time best of all. He did but rise m
the morning, and the very same day, * Go tell my brethren.' Ye have
Cant. ii. 8, that Christ cometh ' leaping upon the mountains.' When he
was to help his church, * he leaped over the mountains ;' as in the eighth
verse, ' The voice of my beloved ! behold, he cometh leaping upon the
mountains, skipping upon the hills.' He cometh from heaven to earth,

438

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from earth to the grave ; and now he is risen, he is all in haste, he maketh
no stay, because his manner of despatch is, to help and comfort by the
ministry of others. Go quickly ; do not stand embracing of me, but ' go
and tell my brethren.'

Ohj. But why then do not we find comfort sooner, that are afflicted ?

Ans. Beloved, where is the fault ? Is it in Christ ? You stand out at
staves-end* with Christ; you will not embrace comforts when they be
offered, or else you be not sufficiently humbled ; for he is wise as he is swift,
he knoweth which be the best times.

You see then that Christ, so soon as ever it is fit for him, he will come.
If he should come sooner, he would come too soon ; if afterward, it would
be too late. He is the best discerner of times and seasons that can be,
and therefore wait his leisure. If thou want comfort, humble soul, whoso-
ever thou art, wait his leisure. Certainly he knoweth the best time, and
when the time is come, he will come. ' He that will come shall come,'
Heb. X. 37, there is no question of that.

Now as he sent her in all haste, preferring it before any compliment to
his own person, so it is a constant love. As it is a quick love that God
bears to his children, so it is a constant, invincible love. They had dealt
most unbrotherly with him, for every one had forsaken him, and Peter had
denied him ; yet, ' Go tell my brethren.' One would think this water would
have quenched this fire ; this unkind and unbrotherly dealiucy would have
quenched this love in Christ's breast. It is true, if'it had b^'een the mere
love of man, it had been something ; but it was the love of an infinite
person, that took our nature out of love, and therefore it was a constant
and invincible love. Nothing could conquer it, not the thoughts of their
nnkmd dealings, no, not their denying and forsaking of him. But still,
' Go tell my brethren.' ' Love is strong as death,' Cant. viii. 6. Death
could not hold Christ in the grave, but love held him on the cross. When
he came to the work of our redemption, love then held him on earth ; but
when he was m the grave, it brake through all there. Indeed, it was
stronger than death, in Christ.

Quest. Why is Christ's love so constant, so invincible, that nothincr can
alter it ? °

Besolution. The ground of it is, it is free love. He fetcheth the ground
of his love from his own heart ; not from our worthiness or unworthiness,
but from his own freedom, and God's eternal purpose. God hath purposed
to save so many, and those and no more he giveth to Christ to save. And
God looketh on his own purpose, Christ's free love, and that is the ground
of all. And therefore whom he loveth he loveth to the end, because he
looked on us m his election. The Lord knoweth who are his ; the founda-
tion isso sure, if once we be God's we are ever God's, f For Christ looks
on us m God's election. Therefore, if ever he sheweth his love to us, once
his love and for ever his love. If anything in man could hinder it, it would
have hindered it at our first conversion, when we were at worst, even
enemies ; if nothing could hinder it then, what can hinder it afterwards ?
as the apostle reasoneth strongly : Eom. v. 10, if we be reconciled by
his death, much more will he save us by his life. 'If when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, now much
more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.' If when we had no
croodness, but opposition and rebellion in us, we were saved by his death,
* That is,_= at a distance, or on ceremony.— -G.
t In margin here, ' Fundamenta iamen stant inconcussa Syonis.'—Gr.

A HEAVENLY CONFEEENCE. 439

Christ is much more able to save us now by his life, triumphinfr over death
and being glorious in the heavens. °

Ohj. Oh but, saith the poor soul, I am a poor weak creature, and ready
to fall away every day.

Ans. Ay but Christ's love is constant. * ^Vhom he loveth he loveth to
the end.' What saith the apostle ? Kom. viii. 38, ' Neither things present,
nor thmgs to come, shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ ;'
and therefore be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might; do not
trust to yourselves, nor trouble yourselves for things to come. If you be
free from guilt of former sins, never question time to come. God is
unchangeable in his nature, unchangeable in his love. He is ' Jehovah,
I am,' always ; not ' I was or will be,' but ' I am always.' If ever he loved
thee, he will love thee for ever. You see the constancy of Christ's love,
' Go tell my brethren.' Now when they had most deeply offended him, they
were renegadoes, having all left him ; and then when he had most need
of their comfort, being in greatest extremity; and yet ' Go tell my brethren.'
_ Beloved, let us not lose the comfort of the constancy and immuta-
bility of Christ's love. Let us conceive that all the sweet links of
salvation are held on God's part strong, not on ours ; the firmness is
on God's part, not on ours. Election is firm on God's part, not on
ours. _ We choose indeed as he chooseth us, but the firmness is of his
choosing ; so he calleth us, we answ^er, but the firmness is of his action.
He justifieth ; we are made righteous, but the firmness is of his imputation.
■ Will he forgive sins to-day, and bring us into court and damn us to-morrow ?
No. The firmness is of his action. We are ready to run into new debts
every day, but whom he justifieth he will glorify. The whole chain so
holdcth, that all the creatures in heaven and earth cannot break a link of
it. W^hom he calleth he will justify and glorify. Therefore never doubt
of continuance, for it holds firm on God's part, not thine. God embraceth
us in the arms of his everlasting love, not that we embraced him first.
When the child falleth not, it is from the mother's holding the child, and
not from the child's holding the mother. So it is God's holding of us,
knowing of us, embracing of us, and justifying of us that maketh the state
firm, and not ours ; for ours is but a reflection and result of his, which is
unvariable. The sight of the sun varieth, but the sun in the firmament
keepeth always his constant course. So God's love is as the sun, invari-
able, and for ever the same. I only touch it, as the foundation of wonderful
comfort, which they undermine that hold the contrary.

The next point is, that Christ chose Mary to go tell his brethren, and
under the sweet title of ' brethren,' to deliver this sweet message, ' I am
going to my Father, and your Father ; to my God, and your God.' He
telleth them the sweetest words in the worst times.

This point differeth from the former thus. The former was, that Christ's
love is constant, and always the same. But now Christ most sheweth his
love when we are most cast down : in the worst times, if our casting down
be with repentance. He never said 'brethren' before, but reserved the
term of ' brethren' for the worst time of all. The sweetest discoveries of
Christ are in the worst times of all to his children. Mothers will bring out
any thing to their children, that is sweet and comfortable to them, in their
sickness. Though they frowned on them before, yet the exigency of the
child requires it. When there is need, any thing cometh out that may
please the child. The poor disciples were not only in affliction, being the
scorn of the world, the shepherd being smitten and the sheep scattered, but

440 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

their inward grief was greater. They were inwardly confounded and ashamed
to see Christ come to such an end. They were full of unbelief. Though
Christ had told them he would rise again, they could not believe ; and so
what with fear, and what with doubt, and what with grief for their using of
Christ so unkindly and leaving him, certainly they were in a perplexed and
disconsolate condition ; yet now, ' Go and tell my brethren.' We see, then,
that after relapses, when we be in state of grace, to deal unkindly with
Christ, must needs be matter of grief and shame ; yet if we be humbled for
it and cast down, even then Christ hath a sweet message for us by his Holy
Spirit : ' Go, tell my brethren.' In the Canticles, the church, the spouse
of Christ, had dealt unkindly with Christ, by losing him and forsaking him,
chap. iii. 5. In the third chapter, she had lost him, and sought him on
her bed, but found him not. She rose, and went to the watchmen, and
then went through the city, but found him not. At length she found him
whom her soul loved. Then Christ speaks most sweetly and comfortably
to her in the beginning of the fourth chapter, but especially in the sixth
chapter, after she had dealt most unkindly with Christ. He standeth at
the door knocking and waiting, till his locks dropped with rain, in resem-
blance of a lover that standeth at the door, and is not suffered to come in.
Afterwards he leaveth her for this unkindness, yet not so, but that there
was some sweet relish left upon the door. God always leaveth something
in his children to long after him ; and at length, after much longing, Christ
manifesteth himself sweetly to her, chap. vi. 4, and breaketh out, ' Thou
art beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an
army with banners ; turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome
me ; thy hair is as a flock of goats,' &c., and so goeth on, ' My love, my
dove, my undefiled one.' He could not satisfy himself in the commenda-
tions of his church, being, as it were, overcome with love. And this sheweth,
that after we have dealt unkindly with Christ, and our consciences are
ashamed and abashed with it, as it is fit they should, yet if we will wait a
while, and be content, nor be desperate, nor yield to temptation, if we stay
but a while, Christ will manifest himself to us, and shew that he valueth
and prizeth the hidden graces we cannot see. He can see gold in ore. He
can see hidden love, and hidden faith and grace, that we cannot see in
temptations ; and he will manifest all at length, and shew his love when we
stand most in need of it. We see it in David, who was deeply humbled for
his folly with Bathsheba, for there was not one, but many sins, as murder
and adultery, &c. ; yet being now humbled, God sent him and Bathsheba
wise Solomon, to succeed him in his kingdom. He forgetteth all ; and so
you see our Saviour Christ forgetteth all their unkindness. He biddeth
her not ' Go, tell my renegade disciples, that owned not me ; they care not
for me : I care not for them ; I am above death and all, and now will use
them as they did me.' Oh no. But ' Go, tell my brethren,' without men-
tioning any thing that they have done unkindly.

What is the reason ? It is sufficient to a gracious soul that it is thus ;
it is the course of God. But there be reasons to give satisfaction.

Reason 1. First, The love of Christ to a poor, disconsolate, afflicted soul is
most seasonable. When they have relapsed and dealt unkindly with Christ,
then Christ not only forgiveth, but forgets all ; nay, and calleth them under
the term of ' brethren,' which is more than forgiving or forgetting. Oh now
it is seasonable. For there is a wonderful dejection of spirit after unkind
usage of Christ, in a soul that knows what Christ means. It is as a shower
of rain after great drought. It falleth weighty upon the soul.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 441

Reaso7i 2. Secondly, The freedom of Christ's love most appeareth then,
when no desert of ours can move it. For is not that love free, when we have
dealt unliindl}' with him, and joined with the world and with the flesh, ant"
dealt shi^perily with him, that then he would speak kindly to us and make
love to us ? Lord, if I had had my due, what would have become of me ?
If he had sent them word according to their deserts, he might have said,
* Go, tell the apostate, base people that have dealt unworthily with me,
whom I will send to hell.' Oh no. But ' tell my brethren.' His free
love appeareth most at such times, when our souls are most dejected.

_ Reason 3. Thirdly, Satan roareth then most, then he most of all sheurth
his horns, ivhen xve are relapsed. Oh, saith he, if thou hadst never found
kindness, it had been something ; but thou hast dealt unworthily that hast
had so many favours, and dost thou so requite the Lord of glory ? Now
this love of Christ doth exceedingly confound Satan, and trouble his plots.
He knoweth then that God leaveth men, and he joineth with a guilty con-
science, and a guilty conscience maketh them to fear all they have deserved,
Shall I look God in the face, and Christ in the face when I have used them
thus ? Shall I receive the sacrament and join with God's people ? Now
Satan doth join with guilt of conscience, and carrieth it further ; and when
God seeth them dejected and humbled for this, ho speaketh more comfort
to them than ever before.

There is none of us all, I can except none, but had need of this. Have
we dealt so unkindly with Christ since our conversion ? Have not we
dealt proudly, and unkindly, and carelessly with him ? And if we have
the love of Christ in our breasts, it will shame and abash us. Now if we
have joined with a temptation, Satan will say. Will you go to God, and to
prayer, that have served God thus ? Shall I yield to this temptation ? If
we can shame ourselves and say, Lord, I take all shame to myself, I have
dealt most unworthily with thee, we shall hear a voice of comfort presently.
And therefore whatsoever our conditions be, be invited to repentance,
though thou hast fallen and fallen again. < I have dealt unkindly.' Did
not Peter so ? and yet, ' Go, tell my disciples, and tell Peter.' The pope will
have him head of the church. I am sure he was head in forsaking of
Christ, and indeed Christ never* upbraided Peter with forsaking of him.
Now only he biddeth him feed, feed, feed, that he might take more notice
of it ; but he was so kind that he never cast it into his teeth, John
xxi. 15-17.

Obj. But saith the poor drooping soul, If I had never tasted of mercy it
had been something.

Ans. But object not that, for though Peter's offence was great, yet his
repentance was great ; and though thy sins be gi-eat, yet if thy repentance
and humiliation be answerable, thou shalt have most comfort of all. And
therefore let no man be discouraged.

If we go on in sinful, desperate courses, as the fashion of the world is,
speak what we can, if we speak out our lungs, many will not leave an
oath, nor their profane base courses and filthy ways ; ill they have been
already, and ill they will be till they come to hell. Some such there be,
but better we are to speak too. Whosoever thou art, that are weary of
thy profane, base, godless courses, be humbled for them. When thou art
humbled and broken-hearted, then think of Christ, as he offers himself;
think of nothing but love, nothing but mercy. Satan will picture him
thus and thus, but when thou beest humbled and broken-hearted, he is
* Misprinted ' ever.' — G.

442 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

readier to entertain thee than thou art to fly to him. And therefore at such
times consider how Christ otfereth himself to thee. He that died for his
enemies, and seeks them that never sought him, that is found of them that
sought him not, will he refuse them that seek him ? If thou hast an heart
humhled, and hast a desire of favour, will he refuse thee, that receiveth
many in the world. Therefore do not despair. We as ambassadors beseech
3'ou, saith the apostle. Thou desirest God's favour and Chinst's love.
Thou desirest them, and Christ entreateth thee, and then thou art well met.
Thou wouldst fain have pardon and mercy, so would Christ fain bestow it
upon thee. Therefore join not to Satan. Take heed of temptations in
such a case as this is. Take heed of refusing our own mercies. When
God offers mercy in the bowels of his compassion, refuse it not. Christ is
ready to shew great kindness in our greatest unkindness, if we be humbled
for it.

But this belongeth to those that be broken-hearted, that can prize and
value Christ. They that go on in presumptuous courses shall find Christ
in another manner of majesty. They shall find him as a judge whom they
despised as a brother ; and they that will not come in and subject them-
selves to his mercy, they shall find his justice. If they will not come
under this sceptre, they shall find his rod of iron to crush them to pieces.
And therefore let no corrupt, careless person, that will go on, fortify their
presumption from hence. It belongeth only to them to be humbled and
abased with the sight of sin, and consideration of their unkindness and
unworthy dealing with Christ. I know such as are most subject to dis-
couragement, and Satan is most ready to close with them in strong temp-
tations above all. Oh, but never let them despair, but consider what the
apostle saith : ' While sin aboundeth, grace aboundeth much more,' Rom.
V. 20. If there be height, depth, and breadth of sin in us, there is now
more height, and depth, and breadth of mercy in Christ ; yea, more than
we can receive.

I have fallen from God, saith the soul. What if thou hast ? but God
is not fallen from thee. Peter denied Christ, but did Christ deny Peter ?
No. Christ hath not denied thee. What saith the Lord in Jeremiah ?
' Will the husband take the wife when she hath been naught ? no ; yet
return to me, Israel,' Jer. iii. 1. But say, thou hast been false, and
committed such and such sins ; whatsoever they be, though adultery, yet
return to me.

Quest. Oh, but is it possible God should do it ?

Fiesol. Yea, it is possible with him : * His thoughts are not as thy
thoughts ; his thoughts are as far above thine as heaven is above earth,'
Isa. Iv. 8.

Obj. Why, no man will do it.

Ans. Ay, but here is the mercy of a God, * I am God, and not man ;'
therefore his comforts fail not. If he were so, he would not regard one
that hath been so unkind ; but he is God, and not man.

' Go to my brethren.' I come now to the matter of the commission.
Tell them, ' I ascend to my Father, and your Father ; to my God, and
your God,' which is all included in * brethren ;' for if we be God's in
Christ, then God is our Father. But we must not deal in few words with
disconsolate souls, but come again and again with the same words. As
how many times have you the comfort of the Messiah in Isaiah and the
rest of the prophets, again and again ? Our hearts are so prone to doubt
of God's mercy, of Christ's love, especially after guilt, that all is little

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 443

enough ; and therefore our Saviour studieth to speak sweetly to the heart,
'Go, tell my brethren.' That which a carnal heart and curious* head
would count tautology and superfluity of words, a gracious heart thinks to
be_ scantiness. Oh, more of that still; I have not enough ! This is the
pride of men, that will have all things to satisfy the curious ear ; but a
gracious heart hath never enough. And therefore Christ addeth comfort
to comfort : * Go, tell my brethren, I ascend to my Father, and their
Father; to my God, and their God.' The message itself is Christ's
ascension. The place Avhither is to the Father, a common Father to him
and them. Every word hath comfort.

' I ascend.'

I ascend to the Father, and to my Father and your Father too. Now
I have quitted myself of death, and sin imputed to me as a surety, and I
am going to heaven to make an end of all there : ' I ascend to God, to my
God and to your God.' We have all one common Father, and one com-
mon God.

First, For his ascension. He did not yet ascend. Why then doth he
speak for the present ? * I ascend ;' that is, I am shortly so to do. And
it was in his mind, it was certainly so to be ; and therefore he speaks of
it in present. It is the phrase of faith, to speak of things to come as if
they were present. Faith makes them so to the soul, for it looketh on
the word and all things as they are in that Word, who will make good
whatsoever he saith. And therefore it is the evidence of things that are
not yet, yet they be evident to a faithful soul. If we could learn this
aright, to make things to come present, what kind of people should we
be! Could we think of our resurrection and ascension and glory to come
as present, they would be present to our faith ; the things present, or
sense, could not withdraw us. If we could set hell before us, could the
pleasures of hell bewitch us ? If the time to come were present, could
anything in the world withdraw us ? It could not be. And therefore it
is an excellent skill of faith to set things to come before us as present.

He ascendeth. He implieth that he was risen. That was past, and
therefore he nameth it not. All Christ's mind was on ascending. Those
that are risen together with Christ, their mind is all on ascension, all on
heaven. And this is one main reason, because where anything is imper-
fect, there the spirit resteth not till it attaineth to that perfection that it is
destinated unto. When anything hath a proper element and place where
it must rest, it resteth not till it be in its own proper place and element.
The perfection of the soul is in heaven, to see Christ face to face, and God
in Christ. Heaven is the element of a Christian. It is his proper region.
He is never well till there ; and there is his rest, his solace and content-
ment, and there all his desires are satiated to the utmost. Till we be in
heaven, we be under desires ; for we be under imperfections. All the
while we are in imperfections we are in an uncomfortable estate ; and
while we be so, we are not as we should be. And therefore wheresoever
any are partakers of Christ's resurrection, they mind the ascension as pre-
sent. Where any grace is, there the thoughts are for heaven presently.

Let us take a scantingf of our dispositions from hence. There be many
that think it good to be here always ; they never think of ascending. If
they could live here always, they would with all their hearts, but it is not
so with a Christian. It is his desire to be where his happiness, his
Saviour, his God and Father is, where his country and inheritance is,

* That is, 'over-curious.' — G. t That is, ' proportion' = measure.— G.

444 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

and therefore he mindeth ascension and things to come. When anything
is done, he thinks that what is done is not yet enough. As your great
conquerors in the world, they forget what they have conquered, and
remember what they have yet to do ; so Christ, having got conquest over
death, he thinks now of ascension, to conquer in the eyes of all ; for it is
not enough to conquer in the field, but he will conquer in the city ; he will
conquer to heaven, and make show of his conquest. I ascend to lead
captivity captive, ' to make a show,' as it is expressed, Col. ii. 15. "While
anything is to do or receive, our souls should not be satisfied, but still
stretched out to desire further and further still, more and more still, till
we be there where our souls shall be filled to the uttermost ; and there is
no place of further desire, as heaven is the place to satiate, and fill all the
comers of the soul.

Quest. But how shall we know whether we be risen with Christ or no ?
Resol. Partly we may know it by our former courses. Christ when he was
risen, all the clothes were laid together in the grave. He left them behind,
and rose with an earthquake. There was a commotion ; and after his
resurrection he minded heaven. So if ye be risen with Christ, your former
vile courses lie in the grave ; your oaths are gone ; profaneness and wicked-
ness of life gone. Tell you me, you are risen, while you carry the bonds
of your sins about you ? You profane, wretched, swearing, ungodly
persons, filthy speakers, that have an heart more filthy, vile in body and
soul, can they have any part in Christ ? Where is that that bound you
before ? You carry it about still. Therefore you be in the bonds of the
devil ; you be in the grave of sin ; there is no rising. Eesurrection is with
commotion. There was an earthquake when Christ arose; and there is an
heartquake when the soul riseth. Can the soul rise from sin without com-
motion ? In the inward man there will* be division between flesh and
spirit, without any ado at all ? And therefore they that find nothing to do
in their spirits, where is their rising again ?

fe But that which is proper to the occasion in hand is the third. Where
grace is begun, there will be an inward proceeding and ascending with
Christ. How shall I know therefore whether I ascend ?

1. First, By minding things above. The apostle telleth us directly, Col.
iii. 1, * Mind things above,' be heavenly-minded in some sort, live the life
that Christ did, after his resurrection. All his discourse was, after his
resurrection, of the kingdom of heaven, and his mind was on the place
whither he was to go ; and so a true Christian indeed, that is truly risen,
his thoughts and discourse is, when he is himself, heavenly. Other things
he useth as if he did not ; as while we be in the world, we must deal with
worldly things ; but we must deal with them as that which is not our
proper element, 1 Cor. vii. 37, ' They used the world, as if they used it
not ; and they married, as if they did not ; for they knew the fashion of
this world passeth away.' And therefore they that affect earthly glory,
carnal affections and delights, they cannot think of these things with any
comfort. They be moles which grovel in the earth. Some make a pro-
fession, and they ascend higher as kites do, but they look low ; they make
high professions, but their aims are low. The true eagles that ascend to
Christ, as they ascend, so they look upward and upward still. They do
not mind things below ; they do not take a high pitch, and still continue
earthly-minded ; but they look high, as well as ascend high. Therefore
let us not deceive ourselves.

» Qu. ' will there • ?— Ed.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 445

2. Yet more particularly, those that ascend with"Christ, they that are
in heaven and they that are on earth do the same thiiif/s, thoucjh in different
degrees and measure. What do they in heaven ? There they meddle not
with defilements of the world ; and so, though a Christian be on earth, he
defileth himself not with the world, or ill company. He will converse with
them, but not defile himself with them. They that be in heaven are
praising God, and so be they much in praising of God here. They that
be in heaven love to see the face of God, they joy in it. And they that be
heavenly-minded here joy in the presence of God, in the word, the sacra-
ments, and his children. If they be ascended in any degree and measure,
this they will do. And then they will joy in communion with God all they
can, as they do in heaven. You have some carnal dispositions that are
never themselves but in carnal company like themselves. If ever wo mean
to be in heaven, we mustj joy in heaven on earth ; that is, in them that
be heavenly in their dispositions. If we cannot endure them here, how
shall we ever live with them in heaven ?

What was Christ to ascend for ? What is the end of his ascension ?

The end of his ascension was to take possession of heaven in his body,
which had never been there before ?

1. And he was to take possession of heaven in his body for his church ;
that is, his m3'stical body. So he ascended to heaven, carried his blessed
body that he took in the virgin's womb with him.

2. And likewise he ascended to heaven, to take up heaven in behalf of
his spouse, his church ; as the husband takes up land in another country
in behalf of his wife, therefore he did ascend.

3. And likewise he ascended to leave his Spirit, that he might send
the Comforter. He taketh away himself, that was the great Comforter,
while he was below. He was the bridegroom ; and while the bridegroom
was present, they had not such a measure of the Spirit, Christ's presence
supplied all. But Christ ascended to heaven that his departure from them
might not be prejudicial to them, but that they might have comfort through
the God of comfort, the Spirit of comfort, the Holy Ghost : * I will send
the Comforter,' John xiv. 16, seq.

And though there was no loss by the ascension of Christ, they might fear
by losing of Christ that all their comfort was gone. Ay, but Christ telleth
them, ' I go to prepare a place for you.' He goeth to take up heaven for
his church, and then to send his Spirit. What a blessed intercourse is
there now, since Christ's ascension, between heaven and earth ! Our body
is in heaven, and the Spirit of God is here on earth. The flesh that he
hath taken into heaven is a pledge that all our flesh and bodies shall be
where he is ere long. In the mean time, we have the Spirit to comfort us,
and never to leave us till we be brought to the place where Christ is. This
is great comfort, and this is the main end why Christ ascended to the
Father, that he might send the Comforter. And comfort might well come
now in more abundance than before, because by the death of Christ all
enemies were conquered, and by the resurrection of Christ it was discovered
that God was appeased. The resurrection of Christ manifested to the
world what was done by death ; and now, all enemies being conquered, and
God being appeased, what remains but the sweetest gift next to Christ, the
Holy Ghost ? And that is the reason why the Holy Ghost was more
abundant after Christ's resurrection, because God was fully satisfied, and
declared by the rising of Christ to be fully satisfied, and all enemies to be
conquered.

446 A HEA\'ENLY CONFERENCE.

4. One end likewise of his resurrection was ' to make a show of his con-
quest.' There is a double victory over the enemy. There is a victory in
the field, and triumph together with it. And then there is triumphing in
civitate regia, a triumphing in the kingly city. So Christ did conquer in
his death, and shewed his conquest by resurrection ; but he did not lead
captivity captive and make show thereof till he ascended ; and then he made
open show of his victorious triumph in civitate regia.

5. One special end, likewise, why he would have this message sent, that
he was to ascend, was that he might appear there in heaven for us, as Heb.
ix. 11, scq., ' He appears for ever in heaven for us, and maketh interces-
sion for us.' When the high priest was to enter into the holy of holies,
which was a type of heaven, he carried the names of the twelve tribes
engraven in stone upon his breast. Christ, our true high priest, being
entered into the holy of holies, carried the names of all his elect in his
breast into heaven, and there appeareth before God for us. He carrieth
us in his heart. Christ doth fulfil that which in John xvii. he prayeth
for, appearing in heaven before his Father by virtue of his blood shed, and
that blood that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. It speaks
mercy and pardon. The blood of Abel crieth for vengeance and justice ;
but the blood of Christ saith. Here is one that I shed my blood for. And
when we pray to God, God accepts of our prayers ; and by virtue of Christ's
blood shed, there is mercy, and pardon, and favour procured, which is
sprinkled by faith upon the soul ; God manifesting to the soul by his Spirit,
that Christ died in particular for such a soul, which soul praying to God
in the name of Christ, that blood not only in heaven, but sprinkled upon
the soul, speaketh peace there. The Spirit saith that to the soul, which
Christ doih in heaven. Christ saith in heaven, I died for such a soul ; the
Spirit saith in the soul, Christ died for me ; and the blood of Christ is
sprinkled on every particular soul. As Christ in heaven appears and
intercedeth for me, so the Spirit intercedeth in mine own guilty heart, that
always speaks discomfort, till it be satisfied with particular assurance.
Christ died for me, and God is mine, and Christ is mine. Thus particular
faith sprinkleth the blood of Christ upon the soul. So that now my sins
are not only pardoned in heaven, but in my soul. There is not only inter-
cession in heaven, but in my soul. My soul goeth to God for pardon and
for mercy, and rejoiceth in all the mercies it hath and hopeth to have.
What is done in heaven, is done in a man's soul by the Spirit in some
measure.

6. The last end is, that he might shew that our salvation is exactly
wrought, that God is perfectly satisfied to the full, else he should never
have risen, much less ascended to heaven. And therefore if we once
believe in Christ for forgiveness of sins, and yet say, I doubt of salvation,
it is all one as if you should go about to pluck Christ from heaven. The
doubtful, distrustful heart, till it be subdued by a spirit of faith, saith, ' Who
shall ascend to heaven, to tell me whether I shall go to heaven ?' or * Who
shall enter into the deep, to tell me I am freed from hell ?' I am afraid
I shall be damned, saith the guilty heart, till the Spirit of God hath brought
it under and persuaded it of God's love in Christ. Say not, ' Who shall
ascend up to heaven ? for that is to bring Christ down from heaven,' Rom.
X. 7. And what an injurious thing is it to bring Christ down from heaven,
to suffer on the cross ! This is a great indignity, though we think not of
it, to doubt of our salvation, and not cast ourselves on his mercy. For
as verily as he is there, we shall be there. He is gone to take up a place

A HEAVENLY COMFEEENCE. 447

for US. He is there in our name, as the husband takcth a place for his
spouse. And if we doubt whether we shall come there or no, we doubt
whether he be there or no. And if we doubt of that, we doubt whether he
hath wrought salvation or no, and so we bring him down to the cross again.
Who shall descend to the deep ? that is, to bring Christ from the dead
again. Such is the danger of a distrustful heart. So that by Christ's
ascending into, heaven, we may know all is done and accomplished ; all our
enemies are subdued ; God is appeased and fully satisfied, heaven is taken
up in our room, and therefore labour for a large heart answerable to the
large unchangeable grounds we have, for faith to pitch and bottom itself
upon it. Therefore make this farther use of this ascension of Christ, and
thereupon his intercession in heaven for us. He is there to plead our cause.
He is there as our surety to appear for us, and not only so, but as a coun-
sellor to plead for us ; and not only so, but one of us, as if a brother should
plead for a brother ; and not only so, but a favourite there too. All
favourites are not so excellent at counselling perhaps, but we have one that
is favourite in heaven, and is excellent at pleading, that can non-suit all
accusations laid against us by the devil. He is the Son of God, and he is
one of us ; he appeareth not as a stranger, for a stranger, as the counsellor
is perhaps for his client, but he appears as our brother, Apoc. xii. 10. Let
us think of the comforts of it. He appears for us to plead our cause, with
acceptation of his person and cause. For he, before whom he pleadeth,
God the Father, sent him to take our nature, die, and ascend into heaven
for us, to sustain the persons of particular offenders. He must needs hear
Christ, that sent him for that purpose. Where the judge appoints a
counsel, it is a sign he favoureth the cause. Perhaps we cannot pray, are
disconsolate, and vexed with Satan's temptations. The poor client hath a
good cause, but cannot make a good cause of it. But if he get a skilful
lawyer, that is favourable to him, and before a favourable judge, his com-
fort is, his advocate can make his cause good. If we would confess our
sins, as that we must do, we must take shame to ourselves in all our dis-
tress and disconsolation of spirit ; and we must lay open our estates to God,
and complain ; and then desire God to look upon us, and Christ to plead
our cause for us and answer Satan ; and when Satan is very malicious and
subtile, as he is a very cunning enemy to allege all advantages against us,
to make us despair, remember this, we have one in heaven that is more
skilful than he ' that is the accuser of brethren,' Kev. xii. 10, that accuseth
us to God and to our own souls, that accuseth every man to himself and
maketh him an enemy to himself. But we have a pleader in heaven that
will take our part against the accuser of our brethren, and quiet us at length
in our consciences. Perhaps we may be troubled a while, to humble us ;
but remember that he is in heaven purposely to plead our cause.

It is a good plea to God, ' Lord, I know not what to say ; my sins are
more than the hairs of my head. Satan layeth hard to me. I cannot
answer one of a thousand. I confess all my sins. Hear me, and hear
thy Son for my sake. He is now at thy right hand, and pleadeth for me.'
And desire Christ to plead for us. We have not only all the church to
pray for us, ' Our Father ;' but we have Christ himself to plead for us and
make our cause good, if Christ saith, I shed my blood for this person,
and [he] appears now by virtue of my redemption. And the condition of
the covenant is, if we confess our sins, he is merciful to forgive. And if
we sin, we have an advocate in heaven, to whom we must lay claim, 1 John
ii, 1. The party hath confessed the debt; and therefore the bond must

448 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

be cancelled. He hath performed the conditions on his part ; and there-
fore make it good on thine own part. And being* the Spii'it hath shamed
thee for thy sins, what can the devil say ? What saith Paul ? ' It is God
that justifieth ; who shall condemn ?' Rom. viii, 33. If God, the party
offended, do justify, who shall condemn ? It is Christ that died. That is
not enough. ' That is risen again.' That is not enough. It is Christ
that rose again, ' and sitteth at the right hand of God for us,' and maketh
intercession for us. * Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's
elect ?' Let the devil accuse what he will, Christ is risen, to shew that he
hath satisfied ; and is now in heaven, there appearing for us. Oh that v/e
had hearts large enough for these comforts ! then should we never yield to
base temptations.

It is against the pleasure of God that we should be disconsolate ? There-
fore we wrong our own souls, and sin against our own comfort, when we
let the reins loose by inordinate and extreme sorrow. We lose that sweet-
ness that we might enjoy, by giving way to discomfortable thoughts. Indeed,
if a man examine his life from the beginning of his conversion to the end
thereof, he may thank himself for all his trouble. The sin against the
holy gospel is a kind of rebellion against God, though we think not so,
when we will not be comforted, nor embrace grounds of comfort when we
have them. The comforts of God ought not to be of small esteem to us.
The sweet comforts, large, exceeding, eternal comforts of God, we ought
to esteem of them as they be ; and therefore our Saviour Christ sendeth to
them speedily.

All Scripture is to this end, for consolation, even the Scripture that
tencleth to instruction and direction, that so men may be in a state of com-
fort ; for cordials are not good, but where there is purgation before. So
all Scriptures that are purging, to tell us our faults, they be to bring us
unto a comfortable condition. Other Scriptures, that tend to instruct our
judgments and settle us in faith, what is the end of all, if we walk not
comfortably towards God and strongly in our places ? Therefore, when
we look not to comfort and joy in all conditions, we abuse the intendmentsf
of God.

But, I beseech you, make not a bad use of it ; for if you know it to be
so, if it worketh not graciously in you, and winneth you to respect God
the more, and love him that is thus indulgent and gracious, but go on in
offending conscience, and break peace off, then at length conscience will
admit no comfort. Many that have excellent comforts have made havoc
of their consciences, and will go on in spite of ministers, in spite of their
consciences and God's Spirit joined with conscience. At length it is just
with God to give them up to despair, wicked sinners that trample the blood
of Christ under their feet. But for all other that strive against corruption,
and would be better, it is a ground of marvellous comfort.

I shall come to the message itself. Tell them, ' I ascend.' He speak-
eth of that as present which was surely to be. So we should think of our
future estate as if we were presently to go to heaven. Faith hath this
force, to make things to come present. If we could keep it in us, and
exercise it, could we live in any sin ? But that it is distant, that is the cause
of sinning. We put oflf things in a distance. If it be at the day of judg-
ment, that is far oflf; and therefore they will not leave their present plea-
sure for that that shall not be, they know not when. But look on things
in the word of a God that is Jehovah, that giveth a being to all, who
* That is, ' seeing,' or ' it being so that.'— G. t That is, ' intentions.'— G.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 449

hath spoken of things to come as if present, and then you will be of
another mind. Faith is the privilege of a Christian, which maketh things
afar off present. No wicked man but would leave his swearing and profane-
ness if he saw the joys of heaven and pains of hell ; and it were no thanks
to him. But to believe God on his word, that these things shall be, that
is the commendations of a man, and the excellency of a Christian above
another man. Another man doth all by sense ; but the Christian will trust
God on his word. ' I ascend,' saith Christ.

We must not think of the ascension of Christ as a severed thing from us,
but if we would have the comfort of it, we must think of it as ourselves
ascending with him. Think of Christ as a public person and surety for
us, and then we shall have great comfort in that, that he saith, ' I ascend.'
God prepared pai'adise before he made the creature. He would have him
to come into a place of honour and pleasure. And so God, before ever we
were born, provided a place and paradise for us in heaven, that we might
end our days with greater comfort. We may be straitened here. Many a
good Christian hath scarce where to lay his head ; but Christ is gone to
prepare a place for them in heaven. And this may comfort us in the con-
sideration of all our sins ; for sin past, and for corruption present, and sin
that we may commit for time to come. For any thing that is past, if we
confess our sins to God, he will forgive them. ' The blood of Christ
cleanseth us from all sins,' 1 John i. 7, even from the present corruptions
that attend on us. We have one that stands between God and us as a
surety ; and he will give us his Spirit to subdue our corruptions, and at
length make us like himself, a glorious spouse, Eph. v. 27. If we were
perfect men, we need not a mediator ; and this may teach us comfort,
rather because we are sinners, and daily subject to ofiend God. We have
one to make our peace for time to come ; if we sin, we have an advocate,
1 John ii. 1. When Christ taught us to pray, ' Forgive us our daily tres-
passes,' he supposed we should run daily into sins. Mat. vi. 12. We have
an advocate in heaven every day to stand between God and us, to answer
God,_to undertake that at length we should cease to offend him ; and for
the present, we are such as he shed his precious blood for ; and he
appeareth for us by virtue of his death, which is a marvellous comforf.
We think if we commit sin there is no hope. But what needs a media-
tor, but to make peace between the parties disagreeing ? If all things
were made up between God and us, what need of an intercessor ? But
God knoweth well enough we run into daily sins, by reason of a spring
of corruption in us, which is never idle. And therefore we may daily go
to God in the name of our advocate, and desire God for Christ's sake
to pardon, and desire Christ to intercede for us. Let us therefore shame
ourselves.

There is not a Christian but will be in himself apprehensive of being
thrown into hell every day. There is a spring of corruption in him, and
should God take a forfeiture of * his daily rebellions, his conscience tells
him it were just. And therefore we must every day live upon this branch
of his priestly office, his mediation. We must live by faith in this branch
of Christ, and make use of it continually, for this will keep us from hell.
And therefore if we sin every day, go to God in the name of Christ, and
desire him to pardon us. This is to feed on Christ ; and therefore we
should more wilUngly come to the sacrament. When we be in heaven, we

* That is, ' from,' == should God regard his rebellion as a ' forfeiture/ &c.— G.
VOL. VI. F f

450 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

shall need a mediator no longer, for we shall be perfectly hoi}'. "We can-
not think of these things too much. They be the life of religion and of
comforts ; and it may teach us to make a true use of Christ in all our
conditions. Poor souls that are not acquainted with the gospel, they think
God will cast them into hell for every sin, and they live as if they had not
an high priest in heaven to appear for them.

The matter of the message is, Christ ascended to God, as a common
Father and God to him and them. He doth not say, I ascend to the
Father. That were no great comfort ; for what were that to them ? or to
my Father only. Neither doth he say, ' I ascend to our Father,' for that
is true in the order of it : for he is not in equal respect the God and
Father of Christ, and the God and Father of us. And therefore he speaks
of himself in the first place : ' I go to my God and your God.' For he
ia first and specially Christ's Father and Christ's God, and then ours ;
as we shall see in the particulars. We have a common Father and a
common God with Christ. God the Father is Christ's Father by eternal
generation, as he is God and man. We have therefore the nature of Christ
as he is God and man.

There is this difference between God's being Christ's Father and the
Father of any else.

First of all, God is Christ's Father from eternity. God had a being and
■was a Father from all eternity. There is no man of equal standing with
his father. He is born after his father cometh to be a man. But Christ
is of God from all eternity. His generation is eternal ; and therefore
there is a grand difference.

Then Christ is co-equal with the Father in glory and majesty every day.
The son is not equal with the father, but Christ is with his Father.

Again, The son in other generations comes of the father, and is like the
father, taken out of his substance, but of a different substance from the
father. But Christ and the Father, both the persons are in one substance,
in one essence. The essence of the Father differeth not from the essence
of the Son. We must remember this, to give Christ the prerogative and
pre-eminency, that God is his Father in another manner than ours. He
is his Father by nature, ours by adoption. What he is by nature, we are
by grace. Though Christ was intent upon his ascension, yet he forgetteth
not this grand difference here, but mentioneth it : 'Go to my brethren.'
We must not call him brother again. We may think of him as our brother ;
but 'My God and my Lord,' as Thomas saith, John xx. 28. If the greatest
person should call us brother, yet it is most behoveful for the inferior to
say, ' My God, my Lord ; ' to acknowledge Christ as a great pei'son, and
to make use of his love to strengthen our faith, not to diminish our respect
to him in any way. It is his infinite mercy to term us brethren. But
when we go to him we must have other terms.

Thus we see how to conceive of Christ after his resurrection. When he
hath triumphed over all his enemies, and reconciled God by his death, then
' I go to my Father and your Father.' Then he is a common Father, by
virtue of Christ's satisfaction to divine wrath and justice, and victory and
triumphing over all his enemies. So we must not conceive of God as our
Father, but in reference to Christ's victory over death. God is our Father
by virtue of Christ's satisfaction to justice and conquest over all our ene-
mies. * The God of peace,' saith the holy apostle Paul in the epistle to
the Hebrews, in the conclusion of that excellent epistle, ' that brought you
from death to life through our Lord Jesus Christ,' John v. 24. How

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 451

eometh he to be the God of peace to us, which brought us from death to
ife by our Lord Jesus? Why, the resurrection of Christ makes him
the God of peace Who raised him? He raised himself. But who
together with himself? The Father raised him. Aud could the Father
raise him li he were not reconciled ? But now he is the ' God of peace • '
tor peace IS made by the cross and blood of Christ, Col. iii. 15, the great
peace-maker of heaven and earth; now we may conceive of God under
the sweet relation of a Father.

Now this relation of a father teacheth us as what we may expect from
God, so what we ought to return to God again, and how we ought to carry
ourselves one towards another.

I. What ive may expect from God heing a Father.

(1.) We may expect ivhatsoever a child may expect from a father. God
taketh not upon him empty names. He saith he will be a Father, not only
called a Father, ' but I will be your Father, aud you shall be my sons,' 2 Cor.
yi. 18. All the fatherhood, and all the kindred in heaven and earth that
IS spiritual, the comfort of it eometh from God the Father, reconciled to us
in Christ. The word in the original is so strong that we cannot express it
m Eng-Iish. Fathers on earth are but poor fathers, and they be but beams
ot the fatherly affection that is in God. God will let us see by these beams
of compassion that is in a father to a child, what real compassion he beareth
to us. The true reality of fatherhood is in God. And therefore, when we
hear of father, think of whatsoever lieth in the bowels of a father to a child;
and that we may expect from God om- Father, and infinite more. It is a
great indulgence ; as a father pitieth his child, so God will pity us, Mai.
m. 17. Will a father cast off his child.? Indeed, he will cleanse the child.
So God will take away our abominations, and purge us when we defile
ourselves. It is because of an eternal relation he casteth us not off. We
may expect from him indulgence ; and it is an indulgence of indulgence.
God needed no son when he made us sons. Yet he had his Son and angels
to praise himself withal. Can we pity and pardon a child ? and will "uot
God pardon and pity us ? Why should we conceive worse of him than of
ourselves ? Will we give pity to a father, and not pity to the Father of
all bowels and compassion ? And therefore think not that God will cast
us off. God pardons us, and healeth our infirmities, and pitieth us as a
father pitieth his own child, Ps. ciii. 13. It is a name under which no
man must despair. What! Despair under the name of a father? Despair
of mercy when we have a Father to go to ? The poor prodigal, when he
had spent his patrimony, his body, his good name, had lost all, and nothing
left, yet he had a father, and ' I will go to him,' Luke xv. 18. And so,
when we be at the last cast, and have spent all, we have a Father. There-
fore go to him. What saith the church ? Isa. Ixiii. Ixiv., ' Doubtless thou
art our Father,' when the church was in a poor condition ; ' Though our
righteousness be as a menstruous cloth, and we be defiled, yet thou art our
Father; we are the clay, thou art the potter,' &c. So that it is a name
of his indulgence.

You have his disposition set down by the father of the prodigal. The
son saith, he will go to the father ; the father runneth to him and meeteth
him when he_ is coming. God runneth to us, and is ready to meet us,
when we begin to repent of sin, and are sensible of our faults. He is more
ready to pardon, than we to ask pardon.

I touch only some principal things, that you may remember against the
evil day and hour of temptation. He taketh not on him the relation of a

452 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

Father for nought, but will fill it up to the uttermost. It is no empty
relation.

(2.) It is a name likewise of comfort. It is the speech of a natural man,
* A little punishment is enough from a father.' < He knoweth whereof we
are made, he remembers we are but dust,' Ps. ciii. 14, and Heb. xii. 6 ;
he knoweth we are not iron or steel ; he knoweth our making ; and there-
fore he will deal gently with us when he doth correct us. It is as neces-
sary as our daily bread to have gentle correction, to wean us from the
world ; yet he doth it gently. A little punishment will serve from a gra-
cious father.

(3.) It is a name likewise of jjrovision, that we may expect from God ;
that he will in all our exigences and necessities provide for us whatsoever
shall be needful. What saith our Saviour Christ to the poor disciples
doubting of want ? ' It is your Father's good will to give you the king-
dom.' What then ? ' Fear not, little flock,' Luke xii. 32. He that will
give you a kingdom, will not he give you daily bread, viaticum, provision
for a journey ? He that intendeth us heaven, certainly he will provide for
us here. And therefore in the Lord's prayer, before all petitions, as a
ground of all, he putteth in 'our Father' ; and therefore, ' Give us our daily
bread, our Father.' And therefore he will give us grace to sanctify his
name, and do his will, and forgive us our sins. Expect all from our Father,
which is the ground of all. Christ had much ado to persuade his disciples
that they should not want necessaries ; and therefore he makes whole ser-
mons to strengthen their faith in this : ' Your heavenly Father knoweth
what you stand in need of,' Mat. vi. 8. The son cannot ask, but the
Father can interpret any sigh, any groan, and knoweth what we would
have. And therefore being God's children, we may fetch provision from
him in all conditions.

(4.) And with provisions, protection likewise ; and therefore make this use
of it. In the temptations of Satan, lie under the wing of our Father. We
have a Father to go to ; make use of him, make use of his protection, that
God would shield us, that he would be a tower, as he is a tower, and ' the
righteous man may fly to him,' Prov. xi. 8. Lie under his wings. He is
a gracious Father, and he hath taken this sweet relation on him for this
purpose, that we may have comfort in all conditions. You see then what
we may expect from God, by this sweet relation he hath taken on him in
Christ, to be our Father.

II. This word, it is a word of relation. It bindeth God to us and us to
God, We are to honour him as our Father. This one word is sufficient
to express our duty to a father, and that is a word of reverence ; for it in-
cludeth a mixed affection of fear and love. And it is an affection of an
inferior to a superior. He is great, therefore we ought to fear him. He is
good, therefore we ought to love him. There is with him beams of majesty
and bowels of compassion. As there is beams of majesty, we ought to
fear him ; as bowels of compassion, we ought to love him. So that fear
and love mixed together is the affection we owe to God as our Father. If
we tremble, and are afraid to go to him, we know not he is loving. If
we go to him over-boldly and saucily, we forget that he is great. There-
fore we must think of his greatness, that we forget not his goodness. We
must so think of his goodness, that we forget not his greatness. There-
fore go boldly to him, with reverence to the throne of Christ. In the word
* Father,' there is more saving power than in ten thousand. It toucheth
his very bowels. When a child wanteth anything, and is in distress, let it

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 453

but say, Father, or Mother, and the parents yearn upon him. If God he our
Father, go to him boldly ; but with reverence go with affiance* to his bowels.
Oh, it is a persuasive word ! What cannot we look fromf that majesty that
hath condescended to be called ' Father,' and to be a Father to us in all
our necessities ? Either we shall have what we want and lack, or else we
shall have that which is better. He is a wise Father. He answereth not
always according to our wills, but always according to our good. He seeth
it is for our good that we are not presently comforted. The physician
giveth a sharp potion. Oh, I cannot endure ! And the chirurgeon lanceth.
Oh, I cannot endure it ! But the chirurgeon knoweth it is not healing
time.^ Even so we would be presently taken off from under crosses ; but
God is a wise Father, and knoweth how long it is fit for us to continue under
the cross.

Come to him boldly therefore, under the name of a father, that he may
move his bowels, and surely will hear us. For in Ps. xxvii. 10, when all
forsook me, ' My father and mother forsook me, but the Lord took me up.'
Fathers in the flesh, and mothers, die, but the Lord taketh us up. He is
an eternal Father, and therefore a ground of eternal boldness with God,
and of everlasting comfort. He was our Father before we had a father in
the world, and he will be our Father when we shall cease to be in the world,
They be but instruments under God to bring us into the world. God is
our true Father. Our other fathers are but under God, to give us a being,
to fit us for heaven. He provideth the best inheritance and paternity for
us in heaven. And therefore never be disconsolate, but remember, ' I go
to my Father and your Father,' which is a word of eternal comfort. He
was our Father from eternity in election ; he will be our Father to eternity
in glorification. ' Can a mother forget her child ? yea, though she should,
yet can I not forget thee, thou art written in the palm of my hand,' Isa.
xlix. 15, 16. God hath us always in his eye. A mother cannot always
think of her child. She sleepeth sometimes ; but God is a Father that
never sleepeth. ' The keeper of Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth,'
Ps. cxxi. 4. And this is our comfort in all times and for eternity. And
therefore we ought to carry ourselves to God reverently, and go boldly to
him, and always make use of him.

And this we should learn likewise, to maintain a sweet frame between
God and us. Shall God open such an advantage to us? Shall God be
our Father, and bear the gracious eternal affection of a father ? and shall
not we, by prayer and faith, fetch from our Father all we stand in need of?
As our Saviour saith, ' You that be earthly fathers, when your children ask
such a thing, will you deny ?' Mat. vii. 9, 10. And have we a Father so
rich, so loving, and shall not we have intercourse with him in our daily
necessities ? What a trade is open to us, if we know what a comfort is
laid up in the sweet relation of a father ! ' Your Father knoweth what we
stand in need of,' Mat. vi. 8, and he will give thee the spring of all graces,
not only a broken heart, a spirit of life and vigour in his service, but go
to God and he will give thee his Holy Spirit, which is the best thing next
Christ that can be. And therefore be encouraged to make intercourse
between thee and God, considering we have a brother in heaven, our nature
is there, and our spirit is below. We have the best things in heaven, next
Christ, on earth, and God hath our flesh in heaven by Christ ; and there-
fore why should we not be much in prayer, and much in praises in all our
necessities ? Beloved, it is a comfort of that largeness that I cannot express
* That is, ' trust.'— G. t Qu. ' look for him ' ?— Ed.

454 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

it. I rather leave it to your admiration, that jou may see what use to make
of this sweet relation of a father.

(1.) But we must know, that every one cannot say, ' my Father,' for
there are a company of men in the world that may say, in some respects,
* our Father ;' but in other respects they cannot. As our Saviour Christ
saith peremptorily, John viii. 44, ' You are of your father the devil.' They
bragged of God their Father, and they w^ere of their ' father the devil.'
Therefore, consider who is fit to take this name into their mouths, ' My
Father.' Mark the disposition of the Scribes and Pharisees, and then you
shall see who be fit to brag of God as their Father. They be very formal
men, look to their outward devotion, who so devout as they ? They
studied it ; but what were they for the inside ? They were malicious men,
they were Satanical men, men opposite to the power of religion, arrant
hypocrites, painted sepulchres. |It is no matter for compliment or formality.
An hypocrite may have much of that in the eyes of the world, yet may be
a child of the devil for all that, and a Pharisee for all that. Thou mayest
be malicious against the truth, as the Pharisees sought Christ's blood. A
man may be like Herod, seeking the blood of Christ in his members, per-
secuting Christ, as all cruel men do. They seek to devour Christ in his
professors. What they can, they disparage and dishearten them. They
are enemies to the power of religion and to the ordinances of God. They
be the children of the devil, and therefore have no reason at all to brag that
God is their Father. Indeed, an inward bitter disposition against the power
of religion, though under any formality, is a character of a Satanical spirit,
and such cannot say, * Our Father.' If they do, it is an usurpation, for
their true father is the devil.

(2.) Who can say, Our Father ? Those that by the Spirit of the Father
and the Son, by the Holy Ghost, are ingraffed into Christ by a spirit of
adoption, and have the stamp of the Father upon them. The likeness of
the Father and of Christ, whom God begets to his own likeness, that are,
in a word, like Christ. Christ is the first Son, and in him, and for his
sake, we are sons. He is the natural Son, and they may say ' Our Father'
that labour to express the disposition of Christ, who is the first Son. Sea
this disposition of Christ in the gospel, how marvellously patient he was
under the hand of his Father, obedient to the death of his cross, humbled,
full of love, full of goodness. * He went about doing good,' Acts x. 38.
Do we then walk as Christ did ? Carry we the image of the ' second
Adam ' ? Have we the patient, humble, meek disposition of Christ in our
measure ? Do we love Christ in his members, God in his image ? Do
we love the ordinances and the power of religion ? This sheweth what
we are. And is our conversation suitable to our inward disposition ?
Do we walk in light ? Do we shew by our conversation whose children
we are ? Do our speeches give a character of the inward man ? If this
be in us, though in never so small a measure, with comfort we may say,
« Our Father.'

But may not another man, that is not in Christ, come to God under the
sweet name of ' our Father ?' Yea, he may come to him as his father by
creation and providence, or sacramentally a father, or as brought into the
church, and having God to create him and to provide for him. Lord, thou
hast shewed thyself a gracious Father thus far, though I cannot from any
inward persuasion say, ' My Father.' Thus far as I can I say, ' My Father.'
Strive against our spiritual infidelity, believe God and cast ourselves on his
gracious promises in Christ. God will meet us at the same time, and he

A HEAVENLY CONFEKENCE. 455

will send us his Spirit to make us his sons. And therefore let no man
that hath been a wicked hver be discouraged from going to God in the
name of a father, in that wherein he is a father. Lord, thou hast created
me and preserved me, and it is thy mercy I am not in hell. Yet thou
offerest to be my Father in Christ— thou hast made gracious promises ani
invited me ; and upon this, when the heart yieldeth to the gracious appre-
hensions of God as a Father, there is a spirit of faith wrought in the heart
presently. Therefore think of the name of a father, and the very thoughts
of it will bring the spirit of adoption.

Only it speaks no comfort to the bitter malicious satanical enemies of
Christ, and the power of religion. They be children of the devil. But
now poor souls, that groan under the burden of sin, let them think that
God is a Father, and of the mercies of God, though they do not see they
be interested in them. By the very contemplation of the mercies of God
in Christ, and his inviting them to receive them, the Spirit of God will be
wrought in the soul, whereby they may have confidence to come to God as
a Father.

I desire you therefore to remember this. It is the first sermon of our
Saviour Christ after his resurrection, and therefore forget not to think of
God as a Father and Christ as a Brother. Indeed, whatsoever comfort is
in any relation, God and Christ have taken it on them. A father is more
comprehensive than any other title : Christ is Father, and Husband, and
Spouse. And God is our Eock and Shield ; and whatsoever is comfortable
he hath taken on him, and in Christ we may command him to be so. And
if we had ten thousand worlds, they could not be compared to the comforts
that arise from hence, that we can call God, Father. It is more to us, if
we could improve it in our spiritual trade for heaven, than if we had a
thousand worlds, especially in days of afiliction and in the hour of death.
For it improveth whatsoever is in the bowels of God for poor distressed
souls. When nothing else will comfort, this will comfort, if we can say to
God, ' Father.' Though we cannot make a distinct prayer, yet if we can
say ' Father,' God can pick matter out of our broken language. Now
Christ is ascended up to heaven, he doth us more good than he did when
he was upon the earth. The sun in the firmament yieldeth us heat and
comfort ; but if it were nearer it would do us hurt, or if further off it would
not do us so much good. God hath placed it, being a common light of
the world, high, to enlighten inferior bodies, and to convey influence by
means into them. And so Christ, the Sun of righteousness, being ascended
and advanced to heaven, doth more good than on earth. And therefore
saith he, * It is for your good that I ascend.' It is for our good that we
have Christ in heaven, to appear there for us.

' I ascend to my Father, and to your Father.' * Father' is here taken
personally, not essentially ; though it be true in that sense, ' to my Father,'
as the first person of the Trinity especially. Christ may well say, ' I
ascend to my Father' now; for he was risen again, and was mightily
declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead. ' Thou
art my Son; this day I have begotten thee ;' that is, this day have I declared
thee, Rom. i. 4, and Heb. i. 5. It is said of things, /iuut, cum patefiunt,
they are done when they be open, and declared to be done. Christ was
the Son of God when he rose again, because he was discovered by his
glorious resurrection to be so indeed. And therefore Christ may well say
after his resurrection, ' I go to my Father, and your Father.' Observe
from hence, that God in Christ is our Father. We say, relations are

456 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

mininKB entitatis* they are little entities founded upon others, but they are
maxima; consequentur, of great concernment.

I beseech you, before I leave the point, give me leave to go on a little
further in this, to shew that wonderful mercy, that admirable goodness
which the tongues and hearts of all the men in the world, and angels in
heaven, are not able to express ; that love of God which is contained in the
relation he hath taken on him in Christ to be our Father.

(1.) Consider irho, and uhom. Who, the great God, that hath the Son
to solace himself in. He did not adopt us because he wanted sons. He
had sons of his own, and sons of his love to solace himself in. What need
he have took traitors, rebels, enemies, to make them his sons ? Oh it is
a marvellous advancement of our nature, that God should in Christ become
our * Father.' It is said, Ps. cxiii. 6, ' God abaseth himself to behold things
below ;' and indeed so he doth, with reverence be it spoken to his great
majesty : he abaseth himself in regard of things below, in regard of us worms
of the earth, that be enemies, yea, devils by nature. For many, ye shall
see the devil in them, in their lying and opposing of goodness. And God
■will always have some amongst men, to shew others what they would be,
if God left them to themselves. God abaseth himself to behold things
below. Not that it is a diminution of majesty to do it, but God in Christ
hath stooped so low, that he could go no lower, and he is advanced as high
in our nature as can be. How could God become a man, a curse, God in
the second person with us, God in the first person to be so near to us as a
Father, and God in the second person to make him a Father, to be so low
as Christ was, which is to be as low as hell itself.

(2.) Consider to whom this message is sent. He is your Father, even
a Father to you the disciples, now you are disconsolate. God owneth
us for his children at the worst. He took our condition notwithstanding all
our infirmities. When we be pronest by a work of the Spirit to condemn
ourselves, then God is nearest to justify us. When the poor prodigal said,
* I am unworthy to be a son, make me an household servant,' you see how
the father entertaineth him, Luke xv. 19. So the poor publican dareth not
lift up his eyes, and yet went away justified, Luke xviii. 13. David, when
he could not pray, but murmur and rebel, and said in his heart all men are
liars, ' yet thou heardest the voice of my prayer,' Ps. cxvi. 11 ; even then,
•when he could not pray, but groan and sigh to God : ' 1 said, I am cast
out of thy sight, yet thou regardest the voice of my prayers ;' when he said,
out of a murmuring spirit and rebelliousness of nature, I am cast out of
thy sight — a speech that tended to desperation, — yet God heard the voice
of his prayer. When Job said, ' I clothed myself in dust and ashes,' God
said to him, ' I have accepted thee,' Job xlii. 6, 8. When we by the Spirit
think ourselves unworthy to be accepted, or to look to heaven, or to tread
upon the earth, then God looketh on us worthy in his Son ; and never
more worthy than when we acknowledge our own unworthiness. ' Go tell
my disciples,' at this time when they had dealt so unworthil}^ ' I go to their
Father.'

It is from his own bowels, and not any goodness in us, that he loveth
us. He loveth the work of his own Spirit, his own nature, that that is
of his own. Though the child hath many infirmities, yet the Father seeth
the nature of the child, and therefore loveth it. God seeth his image of
holiness in us in some poor measure, and he loveth his own in us. And
he loveth our love to him, which is in some measure. Though the disciples
* Qu. ' entitates ' ? — Ed.

A HEAVENLY CONFEKENCE. 457

had got into corners, after their unkind dcaUng with Christ, yet he knew
they loved him. As where there is love, there will he a reflection of his
love back again.

And then God knoweth if he should not shew mercy to sinners, he should
have none to serve him on earth. And therefore saith the psalmist, Ps.
cxxx. ver. 4, ' There is mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared ;' that
is, worshipped. If God were not merciful to sinners, where should he
have any to worship him ? And therefore God sheweth himself to be a
Father, even to sinful creatures ; even in their wickedness, he seeth his own
nature in them. He seeth some love, some work of respect in them, and
if he should not love them, he would have none to fear him.

Beloved, live upon this. I spake before of the love of Christ. Here is
the love of God the Father, who is content to be a Father even in our
sinful condition. If God be a Father to us, as to Christ, then let not our
hearts be discouraged in afflictions, persecutions, temptations. God was a
Father to Christ in his desertion. God leaveth us to ourselves sometimes,
and we fear his love. Did not he leave his own Son upon the cross — ' My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' Mat. xxvii. 4G — and yet he
ceased not to be a Father.

For persecution of enemies : was not Christ's whole life filled up with
persecution, and yet a Son ? For temptations : thou art tempted, and
thinkest thou art none of God's children. Satan did tempt our blessed
Saviour, that he might be a merciful Saviour, and know how to succour
thee in times of temptation. Therefore, be not discouraged. Say not,
when thou art deserted, persecuted, afflicted, tempted, God is not thy
Father ; for by that reason thou mayest argue, God was none of Christ's
Father. God was Christ's Father, notwithstanding his desertion for a time ;
and notwithstanding his afflictions in the world, his persecutions of all sorts
of men, and notwithstanding his temptations, God was his Father still.
This we must observe, ' father ' is not a relation to-day, none to-morrow.
It is an eternal relation. * Dam percutis, pater es ; dam castlgas, ])ater es,'
saith Austin (/t) : ' While thou strikest us, thou art our Father; whilst thou
correctest us, thou art our Father.' Parents are tender to their weakest
and sick children ; and God is most tender of all to them that be weak.
' Go, tell Peter.' And therefore, never be out of conceit of God or Christ.
We cannot be in a condition wherein, on any sound grounds, we may run
from God.

But if this be so, let us learn of God to be indulgent. If I were to speak
to ministers, I should be large to advise them to preach the law and the
gospel. The very law is preached in mercy. The Lord taketh a severe
course, but it is to order us. All God's severity is reducible to mercy and
Christ ; all his afflictions, humiliations, and abasements, do they come from
unfatherly aflection ? No ; but to draw us home to him. And therefore,
never be terrible to any, but with a bowel of compassion, but with a mind
that they may see themselves, and see the comforts they have in Christ.
We ought to be of his affection, the great Pastor and Bishop of the church.
And so for ordinary Christians ; they should be indulgent one to another.
Some are always cutting in ulcers ; always wounding and tearing theuiselves
with ill usage and misconstruction ; keeping themselves from growing up
in a better Hfe, by observing the infirmities of them that be better than
themselves. Oh, but ' go, tell my brethren' that my Father owneth them
for his children, which may be a use of marvellous comfort to us.

Shall a child be always prowling for itself ? We think there is neither

458

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

father nor motlier to take care for it : j'our heavenly Father knowetli what
you need. We ought to labour for contentment in all conditions ; for God
is our Father. And for others, if God be our Father, let us look to others
that be our brethren ; own them, and carry ourselves to them as brethren.
Let the strong carry themselves lowly to the weak. It is a sign of greatest
sti'ength to be most indulgent. Many account it great commendations on
their jjart to be censorious and to be severe. Ay, but that is the greatest
part of their weakness, if they have any goodness in them. For who was
more indulgent to the disciples than Christ, who saw their weakness ? He
bore with all their infirmities. Where we see any goodness, let us bear
with many weaknesses. We ought to be peaceable men : Beati sunt
paci/ici* They that be appeased in their consciences, in sense of their
own pardon, are ready to shew mercy to others. Busy, contentious,
quarrelsome dispositions argue they never found comfort from God himself.

If God be a Father, and we are brethren, it is a levelling word ; it
bringeth mountains down and fiUeth up valleys. All are brethren, take them
in what condition you will. If they be great in the world, brethren of high
degree; yet 'brother' levelleth them. If they be of low degree, yet it
filleth them up, and raiseth them to the height in this brotherhood. And
therefore, ' Go, tell my brethren ; ' tell them all, for they be all equally
brethren.

If I wei'e to speak to persons of quality and great parts, as I am to speak
to mean, let them be put in mind of their condition. Nothing should raise
us up so high, as to forget the everlasting relation of brother. Infirmity
should not so far prevail with us, as to forget that which the children of
God have to eternity. And for other persons more eminent, if he be a
king, let him not so mind that, as to forget all other. For all relations
determine in death, and must be laid in the dust ; all must stand on equal
ground before God's bar, and they that have most to answer for, have the
highest account of all, and therefore it is ground of humility to all. Let
them that are in greatest eminency consider this. Paul, after conversion,
could say, ' Henceforth, I know no man after the flesh,' 2 Cor. v. 16. There
is a great deal of humanity in the world : compliment is very ordinary,
which is the picture and outside of humanity ; but Christian love, which is
a degree above humanity, the apostle calleth it ^iXahiX<pia, ' brotherly love,'
that is the scorn of the world. They will own a brother in ofiice ; but
owning them in the sweet bonds of brotherhood, as they are the sons of
God, here is heaven ; make much of them in that kind, that is a strange
thing in the world. But we must know what it meaneth, before we come
to heaven. We must respect a Christian, be he what he will be, under all
his infirmities, if he hath a good spirit in him, which God the Father seeth
and Christ seeth. We must bear love to all saints. Some will make much
of an eminent man, that hath excellent parts, because there may be some
countenance from such persons ; but here is sincerity that beareth love to
all saints. He wraps them up all in the general term, * Go, tell Peter,'
among the rest, that hath offended more than the rest.

If you will know whether you be true brethren or no, or sons of God or
no, make a use of trial, by what is formerly delivered. I shall enlarge
myself in that point, because all dependeth upon it. God is the Father
of all by creation ; he is the Father in a general covenant, of all that
receive the sacrament and are baptized. But if they have no other rela-
tion to God but so, they may go to hell, as Judas and others did : there-
* That is, ' Blessed are the peace-makers.' Of. Mat. v. 9. — G.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 459

fore we must know whether we may claim this relation of Father on good
grounds or no, else it is an usurpation.

1. Those that belong to God, the Spirit of God tcifncsseth to them that
they are sons. They that are adopted have the Spirit of adoption in some
degree. God sendeth his Spirit into their hearts, that assures them that
they be God's children. And howsoever this is the first, yet God giveth
some intimation by his Spirit, that they look to God in another familiar
manner than before ; and he looks on them in a fatherly manner. So there
be some intimations, and insinuations, and hints, though the Spirit of adop-
tion witnesseth not fully and gloriously to the soul always, because we are not
fitted for it ; but sometimes in great afflictions and desertions. Where
the Spirit of God is, there is communion with God in the Spirit of adoption.
And when the voice of the Spirit of adoption speaks not loudly, yet there is
a work of the Spirit. There is something to us renewed by the Spirit ;
there is something of the new creature. When a Christian cannot hear
God say to his soul, ' I am thy salvation,' yet a man may see a work of
grace. There is a love to God, to the ordinances, to the people of God ;
a mourning, because he cannot mourn ; a sighing, because he hath not an
heart pliable. He is discordant with his condition when he is disconsolate.
So that there is a work of the Spirit helpeth him in his worst condition.

Besides, there is a spirit of supplication in some measure. Though he
cannot make set discourses to God, yet he can in a sweet manner lay open
his sorrow and grief to God, and leave them in his bosom. They be
broken words, perhaps, but God can pluck sense out of them. God
knoweth the meaning of the sighing of his own Spirit, though broken
speeches. So that where there is any tongue for God in a man, there is a
spirit of prayer; there is not a strangeness of God to go altogether by, but
the spirit hath a kind of acquaintance with God ; and it goeth to God in
a familiarity, and layeth forth grief, and putteth forth petitions, in another
manner than the world doth.

Again, A Christian in the worst condition, God not only shineth on him
through the cloud, but there is a spirit in him that sigheth to go through
all thick clouds to God. There is a spirit of supplication and of love in
some degree, for that is promised. * The Spirit shall help our infirmities,
when we know not how to pray,' Eom. viii. 26. The intercourse and com-
munion with God is never broken off where there is any Spirit of adop-
tion. Therefore Jonas and David, and the rest, though they could not
pray, yet they sighed to God, and would not leave him. If they could
embrace Christ, they would not leave him. If they could not embrace
Christ, they would touch the hem of his garment. They will not yield
to the stream altogether, but strive against it. And though they be
carried away with the strength of the stream, and see no goodness in them-
selves, yet they that be with them shall see a spirit striving to another
condition than they are in. Something of Christ's, something of God's
Spirit there will be in them. And take them at the worst, they will
appear better than the civil man, that thinks himself a glorious man, though
he hath nothing but for show and fashion. Who would be in such a man's
condition without some brokenness of heart, some sighs ?

2. Likewise we may know it by our sympathy and antipathy — our
sympathy with them that be good, and antipathy to that which is naught.*
There is a love of that which is good. So things, good things, are con-
natural to a good man. There is a relish in good company and good
* That is, ' naughty,' = wicked. — G.

460

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

things. As there is sweetness in the best things, so there is something in
the children of God that is answerable to the God whom they serve. He
is never so out of taste but he findeth his chief comfort in this thing, and
he is never himself so much as when he is conversant in these things,
though in different measure : sometimes more, and sometimes less. There
is an inward antipathy to God in a proud carnal man that hath not his
heart subdued by grace ; there is a contrariety to the power of that grace
which outwardly he professeth, and a sympathy with the world and the
spirit of the world. Take a good Christian at the worst, he is better than
another at the best. I beseech you, therefore, examine our dispositions ;
how we stand affected to things of an higher nature than the things of the
world ; to spiritual things, how we can relish spiritual things, God's ordi-
nances, and anything that is holy. Surely if there be the Hfe of God and
Christ in us, there will be a kind of connaturalness and suitableness of
taste to the sweetness that is in holy things.

To come to the next, mark the order here, * Go to my Father, and your
Father.' We are the sons of God at the second hand. God is the Father
of Christ fii'st, and then ours. He is his God first, then our God.

This is a weighty point for directing of our devotions, that we may know
in what order to look on God. See God in Christ ; see all things in Christ
first, and then in us. Look upon him as Father to Christ, and then to us.
Look on him as a God to Christ first, and in Christ a God to us. Look
on him as having elected us, but elect in Christ first. See ourselves justi-
fied, but see Christ justified first from our sins, and his justification
declared by his resurrection. See our resurrection and ascension, and
glorification in heaven, not directly, but in Christ our head, who is in
heaven, and taketh up place for us. See God loving us, but look on it in
Christ, who is sedes amoris.'^ The next thing to God is his Son, and he
loveth none but in him. When we consider of any spiritual blessing, say
with the apostle, ' Blessed be God, that hath filled us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ,' Eph. i. 3. Otherwise we do not know ourselves nor
God. Whatsoever is derived from God to us is through Christ. All pro-
mises are his first. They are made to him, and to our nature in him, and
they are performed for his sake. He taketh them from God the Father,
and they be performed for his sake. He is the true Aaron. We are but
the skirts. The oil that is poured upon his head runneth down to his skirts.
It runneth to the meanest Christian ; but the ointment of grace is first
poured on his head. ' Of his grace we receive grace for grace, and of his
fulness,' John i. 10. The first fulness is God himself ; the second receptacle
of all is Christ, God-man ; the third are we ; we have it at the third hand.
God emptieth himself into Christ, as mediator. In him are the fulness of
all riches, the treasures of all wisdom and knowledge. We are completed in
him, and in him we are full. His is not only a fulness of the vessel, as ours
is, but a fulness of the fountain.

And it is for our comfort that it is so, that God's love is to Christ first.
There is a firm foundation when God loveth us in his Son, and we are
children in his natural Son, in whom we are adopted. Then our state is
firm. Our first state in the first Adam was not firm, but now our nature
is taken into the unity of the second person, it is firm. So that the love
and care and fatherly disposition of God towards us, it is sweet to us,
because it is tender to his Son. It is eternal to us, because it is eternal to
him. He can as soon cease to love his Son, as cease to love us. For with
* That is, ' seat of love.' — G.

A HEAVENLY CONFEKENCE. 4G1

the same love lie loveth all Christ mystical, head and members. There is
not the least finger of Christ, the least despised member of Christ, but God
looketh on him with that sweet eternal tenderness with which he looketh
upon his Son, preserving the prerogative of the head. Oh, this is a sweet
comfort, that now all the excellent privileges of a Christian are set on Christ
and then on us ; and therefore we should not lose them, for Christ will lose
nothing. When the favour of a prince is founded on his son whom he
always loveth, the afi'ection is unalterable on the son, and therefore the case
is good. So God's favour to us is founded on his love to his Son, and
therefore unalterable and eternal. We should therefore look up to God in
his Son ; put up all our petitions to him in his Son ; expect all from him
in his Son. He is in heaven for us, to do that that belongeth to us. Expect
all from God through Christ, and do all to God through Christ ; love God
in Christ, and Christ in God ; ourselves in Christ, and ourselves in the love
of God. Christ is in God, and God is in Christ. God and Christ are in
us. There is a marvellous sweet relation and communion between God
and us, and Christ and us. It is a sweet communion, and mysterious to
us. How sweet is the communion between the soul and the body, the soul
being so spiritual, and the body a piece of earth ! But what is this to the
mystery of mysteries, when God takes clay and dust into unity of his per-
son ; and all this is for this union. The great and glorious union of Christ
to our natures is that he may take us into his mystical body, and so make
us one with himself, and one with the Father, He took our natures that
he might convey his fatherly goodness and love and Spirit to us. The
sweet union of the two natures of Christ is to confirm union between the
Father and us, and Christ and us. And we are never happy till we be
assured that we are one with Christ, which is the issue of his excellent
prayer, John xvii.

Our blessed Saviour fetcheth the comfort of our Father from this, that
God is his Father first, and so to join both together; that God is our God,
because he is his God first. It is a point very considerable, that whatso-
ever comfort we look for from God, and in God, we must see it in Christ
first before we see it in ourselves, because we be but sons by adoption, and
we have all we have from God through Christ. W^hatsoever we see in
Christ, think this will belong to us. And whatsoever we look should
belong to us, see it first in him. As verily as he ascended, we shall ascend;
as verily as he rose, we shall arise ; as verily as he is at God's right hand,
we shall be there too ; for by faith we sit now in heavenly places with
Christ ; and ' we shall judge the world, and be for ever with the Lord,'
1 Cor. vi. 3. Whatsoever we see in Christ, interest ourselves in it. And
therefore we must not conceive of Christ as a severe person, but conceive
of ourselves in union and communion with Christ our head ; and to con-
ceive of Christ as our head and surety, and ' second Adam,' and as a
quickening spirit, that communicateth all to us. And therefore when we
are to deal with God, be sure to go through Christ ; as we expect all from
God through Christ, so give all to God through Christ again. Be sure to
take Benjamin with us when we go ; and come clothed with the garments
of our elder brother, and do not doubt when we come with Christ, for else
we dishonour Christ. Shall I come in the sweet name and mediation of
my Saviour, that hath perfected salvation, and not be accepted of God,
when God hath ordained him for that purpose ? If we stagger, and
doubt to receive anything at God's hand, we wrong not only God's
bounty, but Christ the mediator. Carry this therefore all along with us.

462 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

Do all in him, and desire God to pardon all for his sake, and God will
regard us.

Use. Let us therefore make use of it, and add this further, that if so be
God is first the Father of Christ before he is our Father, and first the God
of Christ before he is our God, and that all our good is dependent upon what
God is to Christ first, then doth not this follow from hence, that we shoiddnot
only thank God for ourselves, but thank God for ichatsoever he hath done to
Christ ; not only comfort ourselves in it, but let God have the glonj of it ?
And this the Spirit of God in the hoi}' apostles Peter and Paul led them to.
Eph. i. 3, ' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.*
What, and nothing but so ? Nay, with a reduplication, ' Blessed be God
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' even because he is the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ ; because out of his infinite depth of wisdom and good-
ness he hath found out a way to save us in Christ, to be a Father to him,
and in him a Father to us. It is said of the Virgin Mary, ' All generations
shall call her blessed,' Luke i. 48. Why ? Because she was the mother
of the person that was God ; she was the mother of Christ in human nature,
and of God, because we may not sever the persons. And shall we bless
the Virgin Mary, as mother of God, and not God as Father of Christ? If
she be the mother of Christ-man, then God is the Father of whole Christ ;
and therefore blessed be God, not only that he is our Father and our God,
but that he might be thus with satisfaction to divine justice, he hath found
out such a way to be the Father of Christ; and Christ, as man, is an object
of God's love and predestination as well as we. We deserved nothing at"
God's hands, but he found out such a way by taking the nature of man
into unity of his second person, and so became a Father of Christ and of
us. And therefore bless God, who hath predestinated Christ to be the
Lamb of God, that hath freed him from sin, and set him at his right hand,
raised him from the dead ; that hath carried him into heaven, and ordained
him to be Judge of quick and dead. Are these things severed from us ?
No. They be favours that be ours in Christ; his first, then ours. And
therefore whensoever we think of anything Christ hath of his glory in heaven,
as he is king of heaven and earth, and hath all power committed to him,
glorify God for it, and think of it. This is mine ; he is mine husband, my head ;
he hath taken up that glory, and whatsoever is in heaven, and enjoyeth
them, he hath taken it up for me, and therefore we should bless God for it.
So the apostle Peter: ' Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that hath begot us again to an inheritance immortal, undefiled, that fadeth
not away, reserved in the heavens,' 1 Peter i. 3. He hath begot us to a
lively hope, * through the resurrection of Christ from the dead.' So it is
from the resurrection of Christ from the dead that Christ saith, ' God
is my Father and your Father.' Since God's justice is satisfied by
my resurrection ; that is, declared to be satisfied ; ' I ascend to my Father,
and your Father ; to my God, and your God.' I beseech you, let us not
lose the comfort of these things, since our Saviour Christ intended them
for comfort.

To come to the words. First, Christ saith, God was his God, and our
God, because his God. In what sense is God Christ's God ? As mediator,
as man, both in regard of his person and in regard of his office, God is
Christ's God every way. See Ps. xxii. 9, which is a psalm of Christ, David
being but a type of him in it : ' Thou art my God from my mother's womb ; '
and so God is Christ's God in his particular person, from his mother's
womb.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 4G3

(1.) For, first, God was Christ's God ivhen hij his Ilohj Spirit he sanctified
him in his mother's uwnb, and brought him out into the world. Let the
foolish disputes of friars, and dreams, and dotages of dunsical times go.
' But thou art my God from my mother's womb.'

And (2.) He is Christ's God, because he saved him from the massacre of
ike infants. Our Saviour Christ makes that prayer in Psalm xxii., Mark
XV. 34, on the cross, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? '

(3.) God was Christ's God in protecting of him in his young time, and
afterward in going along with him still to his death ; and in death, ' My
God, my God ' still. He would own God to be his God still ; when God
had deserted him to his sense and feeling, yet 'My God' still. So God
was Christ's God, as Christ was man. Take Christ as mediator, God is
the God of Christ; for God the Father hath by his authority put on
Christ whatsoever he hath. The Father hath sent him into the world ;
the Father 'sealed' him; the Father sent him out as a propitiation for
our sins ; the Father hath declared him and ' anointed ' him ; and all
these terms of authority, whereby the Father hath shewed himself to be
Christ's God, even in his office of mediatorship. So in regard of the care
of his person from his mother's womb, and for ever ; and in regard of his
office as mediator he might well say, ' I go to my God.' In regard of the
intimate familiarity and acquaintance maintained even on the cross, he
might say, ' My God.'

But the comfort of it lieth in the second clause, that as God is the God
of Christ, so he is our God, because he is the God of Christ.

What is it to be a God to any ? In a word, to be a God is to be all-
sufficient to any ; to be sole sufficient, and to be self-sufficient.

To be a God is to be all-sufficient for every creature ; to be all-sufficient
when nothing else can be sufficient. And to be self-sufficient, to be suffi-
cient of himself, and therefore to reduce all back again to himself. Now,
God is a God of himself, for himself, and by himself. God is all-sufficient,
self-sufficient, sole-sufficient ; and whatsoever the creature hath, it hath it
from him. There is, in a word, in God a sufficiency for all good and hap-
piness, and an efficiency to apply that sufficiency for the good of the crea-
ture. And in particular to be a God to any, is to do for a creature that
no creature in the world can do but God. To make it of nothing, to free
it fi-om misery that it is beset withal, when no other can free it, to
recover it again. God is Jehovah, that hath a being of himself, giveth
being to the creatures, that can make the creatui'e of nothing, and being
something, can make it nothing.

Now, if God be a God to any, he is not only to give being to us, in a
certain rank of creatures, as we are advanced above other creatures, as to
have a being, or a life of growing, or a life of sense, or to advance us to a
life of creatures endowed with reason, whereby we are common in that
fashion with angels, and understand God himself. Alas ! this were a poor
privilege if it went no further than to set us in that rank of creatures,
though a great favour. But considering us in a lapsed estate, it is a poor
favour to leave us here. And therefore God is said to be our God now in
a state of grace, when he advanceth us to an higher being and life than all
this, a life of grace here and of glory hereafter ; when out of his sovereignty
and power he reduceth all to help forward his main end, the salvation of his
in particular. So God is a God in peculiar of some that he taketh out of
base mankind. There is a world taken out of the world, as Austin useth to
speak (i). And thus he is a God not to bestow a life of grace and super-

464 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

natural being here, but a glorious condition hereafter in heaven ; and to
make all things serviceable to that, that we may say, ' All is ours, because
we are Christ's, and Christ is God's,' 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. So that whatso-
ever befalleth a Christian, is serviceable and conducible to the main and
last end. And that is for God to be God indeed, to make us his in Christ
Jesus, to give us a new creation and a new state, better than the first.

Now, what is the foundation of this, that God is our God in the cove-
nant of grace ? We say it is founded on Cbrist. God is Christ's God,
and then our God ; and that is the reason why Christ is called ' Immanuel,'
which is as much as to say, as it is expounded, ' God with us.' Not only
because when he took our nature on him, there was God and man in one
person ; but the meaning of the word is, Christ is Immanuel, ' God with us ;'
by being God in our nature, and satisfying divine justice in our nature,
hath brought God the Father and us into a sweet covenant. So that God
may be our God and our Father, notwithstanding his justice ; because all
is satisfied by Christ, who took our nature to die for us. Christ is Im-
manuel, because he hath made God and us one. So that God is our God,
and not only so, but our Father in him. Thus you see how it cometh to
pass that God is our Father by Christ, who came to bring us again to God,
as his whole office was to bring a few that had been singled out of mankind
to God again, from whom they fell ; for we all had communion with God
in Adam, but we lost it ; and now must be brought again to God, which
must be done by Christ, God and man.

Thus much for the foundation of the point, that God is Christ's God, and
God in Christ is our God, to do all things for us, to bring us to an happy
condition here and an everlasting happy condition in heaven.

We see here it is brought as a ground of comfort, and so indeed it is.
And we may observe from hence, that now by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
God is not only become a Father to us, but a God. This is a ground of many
comforts. ' Go, tell my disciples,' now I am risen again ; and therefore
justice is satisfied ; and now they may have lively hope of a better condition
hereafter. For God is my God, that hath raised me up, and who will raise
up mine too. So that now we are copartners with Christ, sharers with
him in the fatherhood of God, and God is God in common with Christ
and us.

This may well be brought as a ground of comfort. If there were any
comfort in the world of sweeter efiicacy than this, our Saviour would
have sent it to his disciples. Comfort being his main office and his main
end, he would have the best comfort after his best resurrection. And he
picks this from amongst them all, ' Go, tell them, I go to my Father, and
their Father ; to my God, and their God.' And therefore it is a pregnant
comfort ; and indeed no heart can conceive the comfort of it, that we have
interest together with Christ in God, and with the Fatherhood of God. And
both these the Scripture joineth together : 2 Cor. ii. 6, ' I will be your
Father, and your God.'

To unfold the comforts more, God is said to be our God in covenant in
Cbrist. He is the God of Christ, and therefore of us, because he hath
made himself over to us. A thing is said to be another man's when the
title is passed to another man. Now, God hath as it were passed over
himself to his believing children and members of Christ. He hath made
over himself to them to be their God ; as he was the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and all the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, so he is
of every good, believing Christian to the end of the world. God maketh

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 405

himself over to be theirs ; and, as the Scriptures' style is, he is their por-
tion and their inheritance ; a blessed portion, a blessed inheritance, more
to us than if all the world were ours, than if heaven were ours, than if ten
thousand worlds were ours, for he is our God that can create millions of
worlds more than this if it were needful. Habet omnia, qui hahet Jiahcntem
omnia: he hath all things that hath him in covenant that hath all things.
And therefore when the Scripture saith, ' I go to their God,' it implieth, I
go to him that is all in all to them, that is larger than their hearts can be ;
for what heart can conceive the fulness of the comforts arising from hence,
' that God is our God ' ? Many know they need comfort of such a tran-
scendent nature. The heart of man is so distrustful, so faithless, and the
conscience is such a clamorous thing, and therefore he cannot think this
is too much. I beseech you, therefore, do not lose the comfort of it, that
in Christ God is our God ; though we can say of nothing else, it is ours.
Perhaps we cannot say, great houses are ours, or friends are ours, or in-
heritances ours. That is no matter. We can say, that is ours which is
infinitely more than that. We can say, God is ours in Christ. Nay,
being exliorted to say by the Spirit of faith, that God is ours in Christ, all
things in the world are ours. As you have it in that place of Scripture,
* All things are yours.' Why ? ' Because you are Christ's, and Christ is
God's.' * Whether things present, or things to come, Paul, Apollos,
Cephas, life, death, all is yours ; you are Christ's, and Christ is God's ;'
that is, all things must by a command from God conspire to make us
happy : affliction, or Satan, or death, or trouble of conscience, or deser-
tion, or everything to help us to heaven. The curse is taken away, and
there is a blessing hid in everything that befalleth a Christian, to bring
him to heaven. Therefore it is a comfort of infinite extent. All is yours,
because God is yours.

You shall see the extent of the comforts further by retail, as it were. If
God be ours, then all is ours too. What be they ? The Scripture telleth
you, and I should spend too much time in unfolding of them.

1. If God be ours, his wisdom must needs be ours, to find out ways to
do us good ; for his infinite wisdom hath found out a way in Christ, by
satisfaction of his justice, to bring us to heaven. He can make us go
beyond all the policy of our neighbours, for his wisdom is ours.

2. If we [are] in danger, his power is ours, to bring us out.

3. If we have sinned, his mercy is ours, to forgive us. He himself being
ours, his mercy must needs be ours. The whole being ours, it followeth
out of the strength of reason that the parts also must be ours.

4. In any want, his all-sufficiency is ours, to supply it or to turn it to
good, and make it up in a better kind.

5. In a word, God being ours, whatsoever is in God, whatsoever God
can do, whatsoever he hath, is ours, because himself is ours. And there-
fore, I beseech you, make this use of it, to get into Christ by faith ; to be
one with Christ, that so God may be our God. Get faith above all graces,
the grace of union and the grace of communion ; that being one with Christ,
we are one with him. God being ours, all is ours ; yea, the worst thing
in the world is ours.

If God be not ours, it is no matter what else is ours. Alas ! all things
must be taken from us, we know not how soon, and we taken from all
things else. What if we had a kingdom, as Saul had, if we be forsaken of
God as he was ? What if we had paradise ? If we offend God, we shall
be cast out. What if we had the dignity to be apostles ? If with Judas we

VOL. VI. G g

466

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have not God, what will all come to ? "What if a man enjoy all the world ?
If out of Christ, it would yield him no comfort ! As the emperor said, I
have gone through all varieties of condition, et nihil mihi ■profuit, but it
hath done me no good.* If we had all, what is it but ' vanity of vani-
ties ' ? and not only so, but ' vexation' ? Eccles. i. 2, ii. 17. Now, when
we have God to be oui' God, he is able to fill the soul. He is larger than
the soul, and he is able to quiet the soul ; he is the rest of the soul, the
soul is quiet ; in him is the centre, as the place of quiet. If God be ours,
then the soul resteth in it ; for God filleth the soul, and quiets the soul,
and hath always fresh comforts for the soul, infinite still to all eternity.
There is nothing in the world but we do as it were deflorare, take away the
flower of it by use, and it becometh stale. Though a man continue many
thousand years in the world, yet he will be weary of all things in the world,
because there is no freshness in them. It is finite, and the soul is larger
than the comforts of the world. But in God is a spring of fresh comforts
to everlasting. Consider the things that enable him to be our God, to fill
the soul, and to be larger than the soul ; to quiet and calm the soul in all
the troubles of it ; and then to have fresh springs of comforts. What a
comfort is this, to have God for their God !

Let it therefore raise up our souls to labour after God, and never rest till
we have some interest in this great portion, of God to be our God. When we
can by faith go out of ourselves to Christ, and lay a right and just claim
to God to be our God, this is a comfort which reacheth from everlasting to
everlasting. It giveth us forgiveness of sins when we had lost ourselves ;
because we are in Christ, he hath forgiven us. In all extremities and
troubles, when no creature can comfort us, it is his glory to shew himself
a God. It reacheth to the resurrection of the body. God is Abraham's,
and Isaac's, and Jacob's God when dead, because he was the God of whole
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and therefore of soul and body. And it
reacheth from all favours of this world, so far as is for our good, to all
eternity. Being our God, he will protect us from all extremities in this
world ; he will speak comfort to our souls, which nothing can do but God.
When we be dead he will raise up our dust, because he is our whole God,
the God of our souls and bodies, and we shall be for ever with the Lord.
It is a comfort of wonderful extent.

Use. 1. Let us therefore make this use of it. Labour to make Mm so to
us ; for as he is to us, so God by his Spirit is our comforter, who being
satisfied, giveth us his Spirit. We must make God our God, and then he
will be a God to us. These be mutual wheresoever they be ; wheresoever
God is God to any, they by the Spirit obtained by Christ have grace to
make him so to themselves. What is it for us to make God a God to us ?
It is this : to set up God a throne in our hearts ; to give him a sovereignty
over all things in the world, that we may say in truth of heart, God is our
joy, God is our comfort, God is our rock, God is all in all to us. When
we give him supremacy of affection above all the world, we esteem nothing
above him ; we value him above all esteem ; his loving-kindness is better
than Hfe itself ; for else we do not make him a God to us, and then it is
no comfort to hear all the comforts spoken of before. For all to whom he
is a God in the covenant of grace, and have hearts to make him so, the
Spirit raiseth up their affections to make him a God to themselves. Amor
tuus, deus tuns, as it is said of old, what we love most is our god. What
we joy most in is our god, what we rely and trust in most is our god, as
» Cf. note z, Vol. III. p. 531.— G.

A HEA^TENLY CONFERENCE. 467

it was said of tlie ' wedge of gold,' Job xxxi. 24. And therefore if anything
hath our affections more than God, or equal with God, that we make our god.
It is a qiuEve of the greatest concernment in the world to put to our hearts.
What do I make my god? as David putteth the quare to himself: ' Now,
Lord, what is my hope ? is it not in thee ? ' And so put this qxuirc to our-
selves : Lord, what is my joy, what is my hope, what is my trust, what is my
comfort ? is it not in thee ? If our hearts cannot make an answer to this in
some sincerity, surely as yet we have not made God our God. Time may
be .that he may be so ; but till by the Spirit of God we be brought to see
an emptiness and vanity in the creature, and nothingness in all in com-
parison of God, that we can say, ' Whom have I in heaven but thee ? ' we
have not comfort, because we do not make him ours by a spirit of
mutuality. Where there is a covenant of grace there must be a mutual
making of God our God, as he maketh himself to us.

Alas ! we may be ashamed of it ; the best do often forget themselves.
Oh how do men value the favours of a man, and the promises of a man ;
the seal of a man for such and such a benefice ; and how doth it grieve
them to have the frowns of flesh and blood, the frowns of greatness ! But
when their consciences tell them they are under guilt of many sins, and
God is not in good terms with them, how doth this affect them ? And
when their consciences cannot say they have promises sealed in Christ of
the favours and mercies of God here and hereafter, alas ! it is dead com-
fort : 'E/io/ rh -Tra^hv, Give me that which is present, and take you that which
is to come, is the language of both. How few can say from sincerity of
heart that they make good* to be their God ? And therefore it is of greater
concernment than we take it.

Use 2. As it is a ground and foundation of comfort, so of all obedience to
God, as it is prefixed before the commandments, ' I am the Lord your
God,' Esod. XX. 2, ' you shall have no other gods but me,' and do all in
obedience to me from this ground. But much more now. Then he was
the Lord God that brought them out of Egypt ; but now God may prefix,
' I am your Lord God in Christ,' that have brought you from hell and
damnation, that intend you heaven and happiness, and therefore do so and
so. Since this is the spring of all obedience, we ought to labour to
make it good, and often to examine ourselves, as before, what we make
our god, and what we pitch our affections on. Alas ! is our soul for any-
thing but God ? Hath not God made us for himself? and will our hearts
rest in anything but God ? Why then should we love vanity, and besot
ourselves "? When death comes, they may say, as Saul said,^ ' The Philis-
tines are upon me, and God hath forsaken me,' 1 Sam. siii. 12. Death
is on me, trouble, sickness, vexation of conscience is on me, and God hath
forsaken me ; I have no God to go to. What a miserable estate is this !
And therefore, I beseech you, let us labour to have interest in the covenant
of grace, to make it good that God is our God in Jesus Christ.

Who giveth us a being to be Christians, to have a new nature, to have
a good being, but God ? Who maintaineth and preserveth that being but
God ? And who keepeth and preserveth us till we get into a glorious being
in heaven but God, who is all-sufiicient, self-sufiicient, sole-sufficient, only
sufficient ? This God is our God now in Christ.

God is to us in a more special singular manner than to other creatures,
because he hath raised us to be a more excellent being, not only as men, we
being in the highest rank of creatures next the angels ; and so he is a God

* Qu. ' god ' ?— Ed.

468 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

to US more than to inferior creatures that have a more circumscrihed and
narrow being. Man hath a Large being, a reasonable soul, and is fitted by
nature to have communion with God, who is wisdom itself, and with angels ;
but all this were little comfort unless we had higher degrees of being than
this. If God be our God in Christ, we have a spiritual being, which is as
much above the dignity and prerogative of our ordinary being as our being
by nature is above the basest creature in the world. And so God setteth
a style upon us suitable to the excellency of our spiritual being. There is
nothing excellent in the world but we are termed by it now, to set out the
advancement and excellency of the dignity we have from God in a special
manner ; to be ' sons,' ' jewels,' his ' portion,' his ' diadem,' to be whatso-
ever you can imagine that is glorious and excellent : an excellent condi-
tion, though spiritual and concealed from the world. God's children are
concealed men, as you shall see afterward. They be hidden men. The
world taketh no notice of them, because their excellency is seen with
another eye than the world hath. ' The God of the world blindeth the
eyes of worldlings,' 2 Cor. iv. 4. They cannot see into the excellency of
God's children, no more than they know God himself and Christ himself.
So you see what it is to be a God in nature and in grace ; to be all in all
unto us ; to have our whole substance and dependence in him. ' In him
we live, move, and have our being,' and well-being.

In this our excellency consisteth, that God is our God in Christ, who
was God ; and that he might bring God and us to good terms together ;
that he might make God our God. He was Immanuel, God with us, to
make God with us in favour and love. The Godhead is nearest the
human nature of Christ of any creature. It is nearer to Christ than to the
angels ; for God hath not taken the angels into hypostatical union, to be
in the same person ; but God in Christ is so near our nature, that there is
an hypostatical union. Thej' make one person, our nature being taken
into the second person. By reason of this near union of the Godhead to
our nature cometh that comfort and near union between God and our
nature, whereby God hath sweet communion with us in Christ. God by
his Spirit, though not hypostatically, yet graciously, is one with us, and
hath communion with us now as his children. So that sweet intercourse
between God and us now, is founded upon the nearness of the Godhead to
our nature in Christ, in whom it is nearest of all, in whom it is advanced
above the angelical nature. And therefore our blessed Saviour might well
say, ' I go to my God, and your God ;' to his God first, and then to our
God.

Now we may say, God is our God ; and upon good grounds, because
God is Christ's God, and in him our God, which is a point of singular
comfort ; and therefore I will enlarge myself further in it.

Doct. For God to be our God, esjyecially in having that in our hearts un-
folded, in regard of our spirits and best being, is the most fundamental comfort
that ive have. For from this, that God is our God, cometh all that we have
that is good in nature and grace. Whatsoever is comfortable cometh from
this spring, that God in Christ is our God, our reconciled God ; that God's
nature and ours now are in good terms.

Beloved, what cannot we expect from God, that is now become our.
God ! What he is, what he is able to do, what he hath, all is ours, con-
sidering himself is ours. If we have the field, we have the pearl in the
field. And therefore the wise merchant in the gospel sold all for the
field wherein the treasure was, Mat. xiii. 44. We have the field itself in

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 4G9

having God, and we have all that God is or can do for us for our good,
even as we have Christ, and all that Christ is, or hath done, and sufi'ered,
and enjoyeth ; ' all is ours, because we are Christ's, and Christ is God's,'
as the apostle saith. So that having God we have all, because we have
him that possesseth all, the creator of all, and preserver of all, and disposer
of all.

But to clear the objection a little : if God be ours, and all things else,
how comes it that we want so many things ?

Ans. I answer. It is our own fault for the most part. We want faith to
make use of and improve this comfort. And then again, we want nothing
that is for our good ; want itself is for our good. And obsei've this, our
God is so powerful a God, that he maketh the worst things we suffer a
means to convey the greatest good oftentimes to us. If God be our God
and Father in Christ, why have we sins ? Why vexed with the devil ?
Why persecuted with men ? Why frightened thus, and thus, and thus ?
All this is for our good. God is our God by these, and in the midst of these ;
and is never more our God than in the greatest extremity of all, for then
we come nearest the fountain. There is a near and sweet communion
between this God and us, when we take of the fountain. When the means
are drawn away, the conduits of conveyance, and we have nothing to go to
but God immediately, there is sweet communion and sweetest comfort in
heaven ; we shall have God in Christ, who will be all in all unto us. We
shall need no magistracy, ministry, food, raiment, or defence against cold
or injury ; we shall be out of the reach of Satan and all enemies ; God will
be all in all immediately. The same God is all in all to us, either by
means or immediately. When means fail, he conveyeth his sweetness and
his power immediately, but ordinarily by means. And what sight doth in
heaven, faith doth now in some proportion ; for as sight in heaven seeth
God in Christ all in all, and enjoyeth that happy vision, so faith seeth God
to be all in all, and Christ to be all in all. Though in an inferior degree
to sight and clearness of vision, yet for the capacity of this life we enjoy
God now as they do in heaven. We have inward comforts when most
deserted. God was never more near our blessed Saviour than on the cross,
when he cried, ' My God, my God,' &c., for then he found invincible
strength supporting him in the great undertaking under the wrath of his
Father. And so God is never nearer than in extremity ; in strength,
though not in sense and feeling ; and oftentimes in feeling itself. We never
have sweeter comforts than in the want of all outward comforts whatsoever,
when nothing else can comfort us but the presence of God. And we must
know besides, that the state of a Christian in this Avorld is an hidden con-
dition ; for it is to the eye of faith, not of sense ; and therefore God is a
God to his, though the world see it not. There is a secret, hidden influence,
a secret passage between heaven and earth, that none seeth. Who observeth
the influence of the sun, or the sweet influence of the stars upon the earth ?
Light we see, but there is a secret influence pierceth deeper than the light,
to the very bowels of the earth, whence metals come. Where no light
comes, there is an influence, though not discerned ; and much more can
there be influence of strength and power and hidden comfort, though there
be no sight. Cannot God be our God in regard of strength, supporting
and supplying, though there be no visible and sensible comfort, though we
see it not ourselves ? Certainly the soul is upheld by an invincible strength
in the worst condition that can be. Therefore this is true, that God is our
God in all conditions.

470 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

Use. Let US make use of this. To what use is riches and friends, if we
do not use them ? To what use is God and Christ, if we use them not ?
Noshvrum * est, utamnr nostro bono. He is ours, let us use him for our
special good on all occasions. Oh that we had faith answerable to our
prerogative. It is a prerogative more than heaven and earth, that God is
ours ; and had we faith suitable, what kind of persons should we be in
grace and comfort, and whatsoever is good ? Therefore labour to make
use of it. But more of this after we have spoken of some rules of trial,
because whatsoever I may say this way may be misapplied. They be
excellent comforts. But perhaps, saith the distressed soul, they belong
not to me, to whom it doth belong. Perhaps it belongeth to me, saith
another that is a stranger and a carnal man, to whom it doth not belong.
Therefore our Saviour giveth some notes of distinctions, to know whether
God be our God or no. Not to be much in the argument, yet to be plain
in it.

(1.) God is their God in this peculiar manner I speak ; that is, in the cove-
vant of grace, not otherwise; and I speak not what God is by creation of
man, for so the devil is God's, and every creature. But the question is,
Whom God is a God to in the nearest bond of the covenant of grace ?
That is the only comfortable relation that can be ; for if God be not our
God in that, all other comforts will be nothing. It is better we be no
creatures at all, than not creatures in the covenant of grace. It is there-
fore worthy the commending to you, especially considering our naughty
hearts are prone to deceive us. Satan, and melancholy, and temptations
do make some refuse the comfort, and some presumptuous persons to
snatch at it when it doth not belong to them. Those to whom God is a
God indeed, in a sweet relation of the covenant of grace to be their God,
as to the patriarchs, prophets, and Christ and the apostles, he giveth his
Holy Spirit to witness so much to them. Though the voice of the Spirit
is not always heard in the best children of God, yet he giveth them the
Holy Spirit, that though it doth not always witness, yet it always works
something in them which may be an evidence that they are God's.

(2.) Now the spirit of adoption and sonship is known hij a spirit of sup-
plication especially. Whom God is a God to, he vouchsafeth a spirit of
prayer, to go to him in all their necessities, which is an issue or branch of
their faith. He giveth them faith to believe it, and prayer to make use of
it ; for God will not give this great privilege without hearts to make use of
it, which is done by faith and prayer; and prayer is nothing but the frame
of faith. Acts ix. 11. As soon as Paul was a good man, presently after his
conversion, 'behold he prayeth.' The child crieth as soon as born, and
the child of God is known by his praying ; as soon as he is convei'ted, an
intercourse is opened between God and the soul, which a Christian soul
will never neglect. If they are placed in the worst condition, they will
pray to God, or at least sigh and groan, which is a prayer that God can
make sense of.

Those that have any strong places of defence, in trouble they will be
sure to fly to that ; in times of war they will betake them to their castle
and place of munition. And so they that be God's, in time of danger run
presently to God ; he is their rock, their refuge, and place of defence.
[They] repair to him by faith and prayer. ' The name of the Lord is a
tower of defence : the righteous in trouble fly thither, and they are safe,'
Prov. xviii. 10. A man may know what his god is by his retiring in times
* Qu. ' nostrum ' ? — Ed.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 471

of extremity. Your carnal man, if he hath any place to retire to, it is to
his friends, to his purse, to bring him out. He will go to that which his
instinct will specially lead him to in times of trouble. As every creature,
together with the nature of it, hath received an instinct from God to go to
the place of refuge wherein it is safe — as the weakest creature hath strong-
est refuge — the conies, a poor weak creature, hide themselves most
strongly, out of instinct they have of their own weakness — so God's child,
being privy of his weakness, and need of support and strength, hath the
strongest support that may be, and runneth to his God. Worldly men
have many shifts, as the wily fox hath ; but a Christian hath but one, but
that is a great one : he goeth to his God in time of need. And therefore
you may know who is in covenant with God in times of extremity, espe-
cially by a spirit of faith, a spirit of prayer.

In times of extremity, no man but a Christian can pray with any com-
fort, with any sweet familiarity, ' Abba, Father ; ' but they be like Pharaoh,
• Go, Moses, pray to your God,' Exod. ix. 28. He hath no such familiarity
with God as to pray for himself. And so carnal men will say, ' Pray to
your God.' And many, like devils, will have no communion with God in
their prosperity'', but their whole life is a provoking of God to enmity, by
swearing, loose, debauched, irregular carriage, hateful even to moral men.
Their hearts tell them they be even like Satan, ' What ! dost thou come to
torment us before our time ? ' Mat. viii. 29. What hast thou to do with
me ? What have they to do with God ? They have scarce a Bible in
their chambers ; if one, it is for fashion's sake. And that they may not
appear to be naught, they will hold conformity in public assemblies ; but
for private familiarity, they have nothing to do with it. The show of reli-
gion goeth under an opprobrious name, but if they would put off the show
it were nothing, and not make ostentation of what they are not ; but they
have no communion with God in prayer. They will go for God's people,
and own him for their God, when they have no trading with him so much
as by prayer. Take heed we deceive not ourselves, I beseech you ; salva-
tion dependeth upon it.

(3.) We may further try tohether our claim of God to he our God he a
good claim, on good grounds, hg our siding, hg our ■part-taking ; for those
whom God is a God to in a peculiar manner will be sure to side with God.
God hath two things in the world he prizes more than all the world; that
is, his children and church, his cause and religion. They that be God's
will be sure to side with the church, they will stand and fall with the
church ; and the cause of religion, they will live and die with it. But a
carnal politician, that hath perhaps great parts of nature, he is ' AXka, ir^og
aXKoZg, as the Grecian calleth him ; they be for all turns ; they can bring
themselves to any figure, like water that will receive any figure_(j ). Take
it, put it into a vessel that is square, it will be square ; put it : .to a round
vessel, it will be round. How can they own God for their God when they
will not seek him, and they are yet to choose their God and religion? And
because they will be sure to be safe in all times, they will own no religion
in any time. And, beloved, is it possible any such should say with con-
fidence, God is their God ? Will he own them that will not own him, nor
his church, nor his cause ? You know Jehu crieth out, ' Who is on my
side, who ? ' Cast her out. And so God, in doubtful times of danger,
crieth out, ' Who is on my side, who ? ' Stand out ; appear, if you be on
my side ; if you be on my side, own my cause ; if yon be not on my side,
if you have no degree of goodness, it will appear. Christian wisdom is

472 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

one thing, carnal policy is another thing. ' The wisdom of the flesh is
enmity with God,' Rom. vii. 8. Many applaud, and think themselves for
somebody in this kind ; but this wisdom is enmity itself against God.
When a man will be wise in a distinct kind of wisdom from God, when he
will have a cause severed from God, and will not side with God, he must
look that God will account him his enemy, and make him his ; but espe-
cially in the hour of death and deep extremity, he shall not be able to look
God in the face, to whom he hath been a traitor in the church and in the
cause of religion. And therefore, as we will be able to own God for our
God, especially in doubtful and dangerous times, side with the church, and
side with religion. It was objected to that good Jehonadab, a good man,
' Have we anything to do with God's enemies ? ' Jer. xxxv. 6, seq. Now
there be two sorts of enemies that we are especially to have nothing to do
withal if we side with God : enemies within us, and enemies without us.
Sin within us. We must take part against our sins ; take God's part and
the Spirit's part against corrupt motions and affections. Divinity must
begin from within, else it is faction without. It is not religion, but faction,
if the religion begin not in our hearts, and if we hate not sin in ourselves.
Where there is true antipathy, the nearer anything is that is opposite to
our nature, the more hateful it is. He that hateth a toad, hateth it in his
bosom most of all. And he that hates sin as sin, hates it in his own heart
most of all. And therefore they that will pretend religion, and be naught
in their own particular, it cometh not from a true principle ; for they that
will side with God, side with God in their own hearts, and be good men in
their own particulars. Therefore, I beseech you, try yourselves by this.
Likewise, when men esteem God's enemy wheresoever they see it, and so
far as their authority and power reacheth, they will take God's part in
themselves against themselves, and in the world too. I will not enlarge
the point, because it cometh in by way of trial, and I cannot but touch it
as a trial. Thus you see how we may know w^hether we be God's or no,
by owning his cause and siding with him. You have some expressions in
Scripture to this purpose : Micah iv. 5, ' All people will walk every one in
the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
for ever and ever.' Every man will walk and converse in the name of his
god ; they will own their god and take part with him ; and we will walk
in the name of our God for ever and ever, and own his cause at all times,
and constantly, for ever and ever.

And likewise in Isa. xliv. 5, speaking of gracious times there, when men
shall be bold for the Lord, as in all times some men will. ' One shall say,
I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and
another shall subscribe with his hand to the Lord, and term himself Israel.'
God shall have his tongue, his hand, and all. He shall say, ' I am the
Lord's,' he shall call himself ' by the name of God,' he shall subscribe to
it, and own the cause.

(4.) Again, If we would know whether God be our God, we must know
whether we may lay just claim to our God as a peculiar God to ?/s, or no,
and that way in which God sheweth himself to be a God in peculiar respects
to us.

Quest. Now how doth God shew himself a God in a peculiar respect to
his children ?

A71S. He sheweth himself to have a peculiar respect to them, —

[1.] By pecidiar gifts, when he gives to them that irhich he giveth to vone
else. Shall we imagine God to be our God by common gifts and common

A HEAVENLY CONFEKENCE. 473

graces ? No. For thou comest to hear the word ; so Herod did. Thou
receivest the sacrament ; so did Judas, so did Simon Magus. Thou hearest
the truth with some joy ; so did the ' third ground,' Mat. xiii. 20. Thou
hast excellent parts ; so hath the devil himself.

But thou art in such a place of the church, teachest others ; so did Judas.
Are these evidences to try whether we be God's or no ? What then is the
peculiar gift and love-token that God bestows upon his favourites ? They
be the graces of his Spirit, especially in regard of God : an humble broken
heart, and a believing heart, and a lowly heart, that goeth out of itself, that
goeth unto God by faith, and towards man full of love, which argueth a
great deal of self-denial, when a man can love others with denial of his own
profit and ease. He that hath a humble, believing, lowly heart, hath more
than all the world besides, for he hath God's peculiar gift. Many poor
souls complain as if God had no regard to them, and yet in the mean time
they have humble, broken hearts, which is more than if they had all the
wealth and worth that the world hath, which have proud hearts, never
broken. The return of these favours will be comfort in death and glory in
heaven. What will the fruit of a beheving heart be ? He hath God and
Christ. If he hath a lowly large heart to do good, he doth that which in
the issue shall further his account at the day of judgment ; and there is
the love of God shewed in his special favour.

[2, J So the love of God especially shall he a peculiar comfort that the world
is ignorant of, especially in times of extremity. Inward peace of conscience,
inward joy, and inward comforts, these are signs of love that God bestoweth
upon a man, when he will own him in the worst times, and speak peace to
his soul when nothing in the world will speak peace. When the lions roar,
fwhenj the great hons of the world roar in extremity, he hath inward peace
and joy, and comforts of the Holy Ghost. That inward intercourse of God
with the soul is a sign of God's peculiar love. When God speaketh peace
to the soul, when he sheweth the light of his countenance, which David in
Ps. iv. 7 prefers before all outward comforts whatsoever — God's revealing
of himself, as the Scripture calleth it — when God revealeth himself to
his to be theirs, with peace, and joy, and comfort accompanying it, this is
peculiar.

[3. J Again, A peculiar favour and love-token of God is to have seasonable
and sanctifyinfj correction. To have corrections when they be seasonable ;
when we be in a way of straying, and God will bring us home by correc-
tion ; and when we have sanctified correction, we find by experience that
all is turned to our good. If I find anything turn me to my God, I know
I am his ; if my cross be seasonable and sanctified, he is my God, for he
takes that course with me which he takes with his own people. These be
singular signs of God's love, when he bestoweth the graces of his Spirit,
his comforts, peace, and joy, though not largely, yet so much as shall
sustain the soul. And then, when he seasonably meeteth ns, and will not
sufi"er us to thrive in an evil course. Oh it is a judgment of judgments to
be hardened in sinful courses of life ; how can it but end in desperation at
length ? And therefore it is a great favour to be chastised ; it sheweth
' we are sons, and not bastards.' Thus we see how we may lay just claim
to this, that God is our God in a peculiar manner.

(5.) To name but one more, to distinguish a spirit of presumption from
a spirit of faith and truth, that God is our God, is this,

[1,] If we have grace to answer his dealings towards us, when we can echo
to God's dealings. God hath chosen us, if we have grace to choose him

474 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

for our God. We may know he hath called us effectually, when we answer
God's call. When he biddeth us believe, he giveth an influence of power
to be able to say, ' I believe ; Lord, help my unbelief,' Mark ix. 24. We
may know he loveth us, when we reflect love again, and love him. We
may know he compasseth us, when we embrace him. We may know he
delighteth in us, when we delight in him and his servants. Whence is the
strength of this argument ? From hence. All good things, whatsoever
we do from God,* is by reflection. God shineth on us first ; God owneth
us for his first, and God must do so in order of causes. God being the
spring of all goodness, he must begin. ' We love him because he loved us
first,' 1 John iv. 19, else we could never love him. Therefore if we love
him and truth, he loveth us. That is sure. ' What have I in heaven but
thee, and in earth of comparison of thee ? ' Ps. Ixxiii. 25. Surely he
owneth us, because in order of causes we can have nothing but from him
first,

[2. J And then again, out of the nature of conscience ; if we can go boldly
to Mm as a reconciled God, notwithstanding guilt of conscience, it is a sign
he hath obtained peace of conscience, because it is the nature of conscience,
if it hath not peace from God, not to dare to appear in God's presence.
So then, when there is inward peace and love answering to God's love,
choice answerable to God's choice, apprehending of him answerable to his
apprehension, this reflection, and I'eturn, and rebounding back to God, is
an invincible argument that God hath first shined upon that soul. God
sometimes will let us see things in the eflect, and hide them in the cause.
Perhaps he will not persuade by his Spirit that he loveth us, hath chosen
us, and that we are his ; but he will work something in our hearts, because
he will have us search our spirits, what good thing he hath wrought, what
love, what choice of the best side are in any of these. Surely then God is
theirs. Though there be not an open voice, yet they may know God hath
loved this soul and spoken peace to that soul, because we can return
nothing to God, but he must shine on us first.

Therefore, beloved, let us make use of this, and let us take heed of
sacrilegious u&urpations, that we do not usurp upon God's house or God
in a peculiar respect. Indeed, we may come to God as his creatures — We
are the workmanship of thy hands — and say the truth, though we be in a
wicked course of life. But to say, ' Thou art my God in Christ,' ' I am
thine, thou hast chosen me for thine,' when we have not chosen him for
our God, nor loved him nor his cause, nor sided with him, nor have any
stamp of him on the soul, have nothing but common favour, that castaways
have as well as we, and the devils as well as we — for the devils go beyond
all men in parts — and yet to usurp the prerogative of being God's in a
peculiar manner, and to be bold with the holy things of God, as if we were
of his family, this is a dangerous usurpation ; take heed of it. And there-
fore they that live in courses of rebellion, and resolve not to mend, they take
the holy things of God, as the psalmist speaks, Ps. 1. 16, 17, in an holy
indignation, * What art thou, that takest my word in thy mouth, since thou
hatest to be reformed ?' Thou art an enemy to God and goodness, and
wilt be so ; thou art in a course of rebellion, and wilt be so. The devil's
works you do and will do. Can we not take the word of the covenant into
our mouths, and shall we take the seal of the covenant ? Therefore resolve
to amend, else have nothing to do with God ; do not add one sin to another.
* It is the children's food, and not for dogs,' Mat. xv. 27 ; it belongeth to
-;^ Qu, ' is from God ' ?— Ed.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 475

maye fcome 1.011°?%°/^^'/'"^'^^' ^^^^^^^^'^^ % infirmities are, thou
TJlt ]^? ^ ' ?"■ *^^ '"^^^^ ^'^ to strengthen our weali faith. When

the father is father of a child, the father will not cast away the chikl for

h s tXlr'\''''™^*^.^V^^"^^"^- ^^- ^-^ hath Ven us into
h family, mfirmities cannot discard us. But I speak of them that in a

^r^Trln.^^nT'^ °^ '''' ^^'^ ^^^y ^'^^' ^^^ to do with God in familiar
S. *''''; ^°'\^^^e^' g^^e them a spirit to alter their natures. Pro-
iWh .^"^1 P^'opor ion, and suitableness of disposition go together : propriety

hTms If hv >, '" '^^''''; I ''^''' ^''^ "^^^*^ '-^"y ^^^' ^'^^^'^ them like
Sf^l ^, i^ •''°'^ and Spirit, that their natures shall be even and agree-
no .t^-f 1 ^ ^""^l' iY^ ^^""^ ^ *^'^' *^^ ^°ly things. And where there is
not suitableness of holy things, there is no propriety. Will God own a

SI ' T ^'', '^''?' ^r '"'*^''^' • ^^^^^ ^0^^ take his friend, and not give
him a friendly nature ? He will not, for he first fitteth our natures for

deZr'°'' 7"' ^/T'l^' '^'' ^^''' ^'-^^ ^^ ^« P^opri^ty. Let us not
wifhZ ""''' ^''^ '^ ^' ^^^ ^"^^ beginnings of grace, and can say

withoutarrogancy or usurpation, ' Doubtless thou art our Father, our God,'
isa. ixiii. 16; we be not worthy to be thine, but we be thine ; if we find
something that castaways cannot have, some grief of heart for sin, some
laith some little measure of love, some love of truth and inclination to the
Dest things then we may come boldly to increase our familiarity and com-
mumon with God. But otherwise it is dangerous to come to God. We
approach 'a consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29. ' Who shall dwell in everlasting
burnings ? Isa. xxxiii. 14. Say they in Isaiah, And if God be not in
covenant with us. Oh, he will be ' a consuming fire,' everlasting burnings,
and we but stubble ; and it will increase spiritual judgment in us, hardness
ot Heart, and going on from sin to sin, till we be accursed for sin. There-
lore it IS a fearful thing to be given up to hardness of heart. They that do
continue m sm, God giveth them up to hardness of heart, to be insensible
ol his dealings with him.

Use 3. If we can in any degree make it good that God is our God and
we his people, then let us make use of it for our comfort in all times, that
we have a God to go to. Though we have no friend in the world, yet we
have him in whom all friends meet. If we have no comfort here, vet we
have him in whom all comforts meet, for all concentre in him. He hath
father and friends, and worth and grace, and peace and comfort in him •
and all is in him. If we go to him, we shall find a confluence of evervthing
that is good, suitable to any necessity of ours.

And therefore let us learu to single out of God whatsoever may help us
to be in covenant with him. He having made himself over to be ours, let
us learn this wisdom, to single out of God whatsoever is peculiar to our pre-
sent condition ; for considering he hath made himself a God to us, he is all-
sufficient to every turn. Therefore out of his all-sufficiency, take out what-
soever IS fit for any particular exigency. ' Lord, I am in a strait, and
want wisdom.' Thou in Christ hast abundance of wisdom. Christ hath
in him all treasures. I now want fi-iends, I want counsel, I want help, I
want strength. God hath a fulness of all this for his children. He hath
itnot only to content himself, and look on his own happiness, but for his
friends that be in covenant with him, that be so near him that he will own
him to be their God. If you ask. What is religion ? it is to know God,
to have all-sufficiency in him for any good, and then to make use of him
* That is, ' proiierty or ownership.' — Ed.

476 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

by dependence on him for that good, and by advancing of him in giving him
the due honour and thanks of it. And therefore we deserve not the names
of rehgious persons, if we do not study what he is to his creatures in the
covenant of grace. Then make use of it by a spirit of dependency, and
always giving praise and thanks. This is our whole man, and what is all
else ? Nothing but trouble and vanity. Get our bonds sealed that he is
our God, and then break with all the world beside. Come what can come,
or what will come, we are sure to be safe. It is a comfort of wonderful
large extent. The use of the sacrament is to seal that God is our God in
particular, and that Christ is ours as verily as the bread and wine are ours.
And let us desire the Lord to seal to every one of our souls, that are to
have communion with him in particular, that he in Christ is ours : Christ
with all his merits and fruits of them, forgiveness of sin and life everlasting,
as verily as the outward man partakes of the outward seals ; and then we
shall come and go away with comfort, and be made partakers of that end
and use of the sacrament for which our blessed Saviour instituted it.

Having spoken before of common favours, which devils and castaways may
have as well as we, I shall enlarge myself a little in this, because it is a
point of concernment. As in other sins we be like the devil, so in this sin
a man is worse than the devil himself, if a man will be a common swearer,
and opposer, and malicious against goodness, being only in love with some
idle conceit of his own, which he will have God himself stoop to else he will
not to heaven ; he will not be saved but by his own foolery. A man
that hath a bitter spirit against the power of grace, that is a common blas-
phemer, that carrieth a spite against religion, for him to say, ' God is his
God,' the devil will as well say so. He will say of Paul and Silas, These
are the people of God ; but he will not say himself is. Acts xix. 15. For
a man to live in sins against conscience, defend them, oppose all that
opposeth his sins, and yet claim an interest while that disposition standeth
in him, it is more than Satanical impudency, and it is extreme hardening
of the heart against all goodness ; for how many thousands in the church
perish and sink to hell under this presumptuous conceit, ' I am God's, and
God is mine,' when the title is false, and the evidence false. And there-
fore it is a point deserving thoroughly to be examined continually, what
those evidences of graces be that we venture our souls and salvation upon.
I will not stand much to press the point. But you see the necessity of it.
Consider therefore, I beseech you, what I have said. If God be ours, there
will be a separation. Where there is an owning of God for their God,
there will be a separation from all that is not his, as well as a gathering to
them that be his. The work of God's Spirit in his children is like fire,
which hath two properties : to sever all heterogeneal and strange stuff, and
dross, and the like, and gather all the homogeneal stuff of one nature. And
so the works of the Spirit gathereth to the soul so much as is good, and
refines that, and severeth that which is contrary. The Spirit of God, that
telleth them that they be God's, it is a severing Spirit and a uniting Spirit.
It severs contraries, and it uniteth things of the same nature. There is a
joining to what is good, and a separating of what is evil.

I will add this farther, that wheresoever on good title we can say, ' I am
God's,' there is a reflect act of the soul to say, ' God is mine.' God hath
put a light of reason and friendship into man. Now friendship standeth
in mutual oflice of duty and gift. Where this is not, there is no friend-
ship, no reconciliation, no ovs'ning on good terms. The end why God
saveth a company of men, and bringeth them to heaven ; the body of

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 477

Christ, which we call the church ; it is, that he may have eternal com-
munion with them m the heavens, as he hath with the blessed an^rels • and
m Christ a nearer communion than he hath with them. Now how can
this communion be, unless we turn to God, unless we have somcthinrr to
answer God s love ? *

Again, Note, God is ours, because Christ is ours. The covenant is made
first with Christ, and then with us. Whence we see a ground of particular
application of that which we call particular faith ; a ground of particular
application by a Spirit of faith of God to us, and Christ to us ; that God
in Christ is my God and your God.

The ground of this is, as God offereth himself, we must apprehend him •
but Christ offers God, and he knoweth how to offer him. He teacheth us
how God is to be presented, and he presenteth him as our God and our
Father; and therefore let us eutertain him as ours. Thus you see a ^ood
ground of particular application of God the Father, and Christ to u^'s in
particular, in two respects ; not only that every one in particular ou^ht to
have a particular faith, and not to think a general faith is enough, to beheve
a^ the church believeth, but to have a particular faith of the ol)ject • not
only of the subject, but of the object; that that is his in particular, 'I ^o
to my Father and your Father.' '^

God is the Father and the God of all the elect, and only the elect, and
of every one of the elect, as we say, in solidum. That is said to be /;/, soli-
dum, when every one applieth the whole to himself, without diminution of
any part. The sum is in solidum to every one that will make use of it, to
enlighten every creature that shutteth not his eyes. As a common foun-
tain is no man's in particular ; for no man can say, This is my fountain,
and yet every man can say, This is mine ; so every saint can say of God,'
He is mine in solidum. Though he were alone, he may say, God is mine!
If ten thousand have him, yet God is his God. God careth for all, as if
there were but one, and for one, as if none but he. God offers himself,
not only to his whole church, but to every one in particular, and therefore
of every one he ought to be apprehended.

This is founded in all the great points and mysteries of religion. As for
instance, what is the ground of all the petitions in the Lord's Prayer?
' Our Father.' What interest have we to all the petitions, and to every
article of the creed ? If there be not a particular application, — ' I believe
God the Father to be «??/ God, Jesus Christ my Saviour, the Holy Ghost
my sanctifier; remission of sins and hfe everlasting is mine,' — we do no
more than the devils. Now every truth in Scripture is written for our
comfort, and shall it be no more comfort to us than to the devils ? Doth
the Scripture intend us no more comfort than the devils ? Yes. But the
devil may say, for the church there is remission of sins, and a God and
Saviour, but not for me ; and that is his torment ; he cannot come to par-
ticulars. So the sacraments are to seal a particular faith. As every one
in particular taketh the bread and wine, so by a particular faith every one
may say, Christ is mine ; his death is mine ; bloodshed mine ; remission
of sins and interest of Christ is mine. It doth not seal a general faith in
the clouds, but a particular assurance, that it belongeth to every one. And
so in the words of the catechise,* the ministerial questioning of sinners is
intended, that every one that believeth should apply it, If thou believest,
and if thou believest, thou shalt be saved ; and thy sins shall be forgiven
thee. So that if we regard prayer and faith, if we regard the sacraments,
* That is, the Churcli Catechism. — Ed.

478 A HEAVENLY CONFEEENCE.

or the use of the catechise, all enforce a particular faith. If we have not
particular faith, we lose the virtue of all. So it is for the commandments.
Put case, no man in particular, yet every one ought to ply in particular,
that they ought to abstain from such a sin, and perform such a duty. If
they do so, they shall be glorified ; if not, they shall be punished. And
there is the same reason in faith as in obedience. A man is condemned in
law, though not named in law ; because the general is set down here, and
every man ought particularly to apply it ; I ought not to have done so and
so. So that it overturneth the end of all, if a man labour not for a parti-
cular faith. To go farther. Now if I disable this interest of particular
faith of God's love, and Christ's love, I lose the comfort of weak faith
where it is true. What condition were they in now, when Christ biddeth
Mary go ? Had not some of them denied Christ, and had they not
all forsaken him ? And yet notwithstanding, ' Go tell Peter,' and tell
them all, ' I go to their Father and their God.' So that the interest
that a soul hath in Christ, who hath true faith, though a weak faith
joined with many infirmities, the interest he hath in Christ is not broke
ofi", as you see by the example of the apostles. And therefore I beseech
you, let us comfort ourselves in this, labouring for a particular faith,
and then labour to maintain our interest, notwithstanding our infirmities
and faults, notwithstanding our sins past. Let not Satan rob us of our
claim, that God is our God and Father in Christ. Let us learn of Christ ;
we cannot have a better pattern. What doth Christ on the cross, when he
had the sins of all the believing world upon him, and had there been ten
thousand times more, it had been all one to so infinite a person, God-man ;
he had made full satisfaction to God's justice. But having so much upon
him, did it take away his claim of God, as his God ? It did not, but still
he said, ' My God, my God.' Was it a claim that did him any good ?
Was it a useful claim ? Yes. For it was made good by his resurrection
and ascension ; and therefore he might well say, 'I go to my God and
your God.' I have overcome the wrath of God due for sin ; and therefore
when I, that had all the sins of the world upon me, acknowledged God to
be my God, and underwent the burden of God's wrath, and satisfied for
all sin, you may well say, ' Mjj God ;' not only from the pattern of Christ,
because he did so, but as a cause. I may say so now, because Christ said
so then. For he hath fully satisfied his Father, who had laid that burden
on him. You, therefore, that have particular burdens of your sins, and
have not that other, but have a conscience troubling you, it is for good ;
because if you believe, that is taken away. But put case you had the guilt
of your own sins, and many sins beside, what is that to this of Christ, who
had the guilt of all sin ? And therefore let no guile hinder you from a
spirit of faith, to say, ' My Father, and my God.' Is Christ ascended to
heaven, to be a mediator of intercession to appear before God ? For
whom ? Is it not for sinners ? What work is there in heaven for a media-
tor, if we were not daily sinners ? Christ that hath satisfied for sin, bid-
deth us, after satisfaction, to think of God as a Father, and think of his
ascension ; even for this end to appear before God for us as our high
priest, to make daily peace for us. His blood is of everlasting efficacy.
And if Abel's blood cried for vengeance, the blood of Christ crieth for
mercy, Heb. xii. 24. As the appearing of the blood of Abel spake for
vengeance, so the very appearing of Christ speaks enough for mercy to the
sinner.

It is a comfortable clause that in Hosea ii. 19, where God saith, ' He

A HEAVENLY CONFEEENCE. 479

will marry them in everlasting mercy.' So that mercy is a part of the join-
ture of the church. God will marry them in mercy ; in what mercy ? In
pardoning mercy ; as the hushand is to bear with the wife, the weaker
vessel, not to put her away for infirmities. Shall we attribute mercy to
men, and not to God ? Can a friend bear the infirmities of a friend, and
a husband of a wife ? And cannot Christ bear the infirmities of his
spouse ? And therefore never think that our infirmities may hinder our
claim. You see it did not here. But ' go to my Father, and your Father.'
This comfort we shall be driven to make use of some time or other, and
therefore make use of it now.

But you will say, This is not comfort for common sort of Christians. It
is not, and I intend it not for them. It is children's bread, and it must
not be cast to dogs. Therefore they that have not God for their God, and
live in any sin, they can lay no claim to him, for they serve another god
in their hearts. Their vile courses are instead of their god, and in their
afiections above their God, and therefore let them not think any promise
belongeth to them in that course. Let them think of God as ' a consuming
fire,' as ' everlasting burnings,' while they be such, and that their peace
is as the peace that the soul hath when the strong man holdeth all in
possession ; when the conscience is speechless, and God hath given them
up to hardness of heart, which is a desperate peace. This belongeth to
them that are resolved not to live in any sin, that have given themselves
up to God ; and yet by reason of the remainder of corruption are driven
to make use of that petition which Christ bids them to pray, ' Forgive us
our daily sins.'

Use. Hence issueth this truth, that a Christian matj be assured of his sal-
vation in this u-orkl. For, first of all, grant that we ought particularly to
apply, as God ofters himself to us, and that no infirmities nor sins hinders
this claim, then what foUoweth but a Christian, beheving and repenting
of his sins daily, may be assured that he is in a state of grace, because there
be grounds of particular application. That, therefore, which seems to
disable that interest, hinders not at all. And therefore labour to maintain
that comfortable state of assurance by all means. The grounds of it is,
particular application, notwithstanding of all sins and infinnities whatsoever,
because Satan envieth it most, because it is a state wherein we honour God
most.

I will not enter largely into the point, because I have spoken of it
in other texts ; but, forasmuch as concerneth this time, we must labour
for that, without the which we cannot go through that which God calleth
us to.

(1.) There he many duties and dispositions that God requires ivhich ive can-
not be in ivithout assurance of salvation on good grounds. What is that ?
God bids us be thankful in all things. How can I know that, unless I
know God is mine and Christ is mine ? Can I be thankful for that which
I doubt of and think I ought to doubt of? Therefore it is such a state,
without which I cannot perform other duty ; and particularly the grand
duty of thankfulness. And what a pitiful state is this, that a man should
not be thankful for Christ, nor heaven, nor for the state of another world,
that there should be such great matters, and yet they cannot thank God
for them.

(2.) Again, God enjoineth us to rejoice. * Rejoice, and again I say,
rejoice,' Philip, iv. 4. Can a man rejoice that his name is written in
heaven, and not know his name is written there ? The disciples were very

480 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

weak now; and yet, notwitlastanding all their infirmities, tliey loved Christ;
they cast themselves upon him, and had not chosen another Saviour.
Therefore ' rejoice that your names are written in heaven,' Luke x. 20,
and how can a man rejoice that knoweth it not to be so ? By God's
writing of the law in a man's heart, he may know his name is written in
heaven. Can a man always rejoice if he hath not grounds why ?

(3.) Again, God requires cheerJuJness. ' God loveth a cheerful giver,'
2 Cor. ix. 7, and a cheerful doer. It is the disposition that is required in
everything. ' Give me thy heart' in everything thou dost, Prov. xxiii. 26.
Alas ! how Can I perform cheerful service to God, when I doubt whether he
be my God and Father or no ? Shall not I labour for a heart to yield
cheerful obedience ? Doth it not come deadly ofi"? Surely it doth. We
ought to comfort ourselves ; and how can a man comfort himself in a con-
dition full of uncertainties ? No comforts are comfortable without this,
that God is our God and our Father. Unless we know this, comforts
themselves are not comfortable unto us. None of the comforts we have,
the comforts of this life, are not comforts to us when the soul saith, Per-
haps God feeds me to slaughter ; and, perhaps, I have these mercies as my
portion in this world ; and how can he be comfortable when he appre-
hendeth not, that they issue from a spring of love ? Alas ! comforts
themselves are uncomfortable. And therefore shall not I labour for that
without which I cannot be comforted ? especially it being a disposition for
our good to be thankful, and cheerful, and joyful, and large-hearted.

(4.) God requires a disposition in us that we should be fall of encourage-
ments, and strong in the Lord : and that we should be courageous for his
cause in withstanding his enemies and our enemies. How can there be
courage in resisting our corruptions, Satan's temptations ? How can there
be courage in suffering persecution and crosses in the world, if there be not
some particular interest we have in Christ and in God ? It cannot be so.
Unless we will deny obedience to all duty enjoyed,* we must have this
assurance which enters into all, which is the spirit that quickeneth and
enliveneth all. Therefore labour for it.

Use 2. Else ive shall take away the grounds that God enforceth good duties
from in Scripture, as he doth enforce duty from this ground, ' As elect, see
ye put on bowels of compassion,' Col. iii. 12. I beseech you, * by the
mercies of God, oifer yourselves a sacrifice to God,' Kom. xii. 1. Alas !
I know not whether I shall have mercy or no. Why take away your
ground and overthrow your principles ? And therefore shall not we labour
for that state of soul wherein we are fitted to be in that disposition, and
to perform duty as God would have us ? I therefore beseech you, labour
for assurance of salvation.

That we may maintain it the better, see the grounds of it. It is not in
our perfection,' for then the poor disciples, where had they been ? Alas !
they had dealt unfaithfully with Christ. But the ground of firmness is on
God's side, the certainty is on God's part, not ours. Tell them, ' I go to
my Father, and my God ; and their Father and their God.' Though we
make breaches every day, yet God breaketh not, as Mai. iii. 6, ' Verily, I
the Lord am not changeable ; and therefore you are not consumed.' We
change, ebb and flow, are to and fro, up and down every day, varying in
our dispositions. Though there be some root and seed of grace in us
always, yet there is a change in our dispositions every day ; but it holdeth
on God's part. And therefore Christ nameth not any qualification in them
* Qu. ' enjoined'?— Ed.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 481

to build comfort on, but ' my God and your God' will yet maintain the
relation of a Father to you, that have not dealt as you should do ; and
maintaineth the relation of a God, notwithstanding your fall. So that we
maintain not our assurance on any part in us, but on God's love. ' Whom
he loveth, he loveth to the end,' John xiii. 1. Our God unchangeably
loveth us, in whom there is not so much as a shadow of change. And
therefore in the last of the Hebrews, it is called an ' everlasting covenant.'
' The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the
great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,'
Heb. xiii. 20. By the blood of Christ there is an everlasting covenant.
God will be our God to death, and in death, and for ever. For this rela-
tion being on God's part, extendeth itself from forgiveness of sins to life
everlasting. It is always. The blood of Christ is the blood of an ever-
lasting covenant. ' I will marry thee to me for ever,' Hosea ii. 19. It
holdeth sure on God's part.

Let us labour to maintain this assurance of salvation from God's love.

Use 2. But for our comfort, ive must do our parts too, though it beyin ivith
God. It beginneth on God's part. He loveth tis first, and embraceth us
first ; and we must love again, and embrace again. We must desire of
God grace to answer relation. Therefore I will prescribe some rules, how
we may say, God is our God, with comfort. That we may have the com-
fort of it, by making good our interest in him, to make it good that we
are sons, as well as to call him Father ; that we are his people, as well as
to call him our God ; his spouse, as well as call him our husband. And
because this cometh from God, join this with all our endeavours : Lord,
thou must begin ; I desire to shew myself as a spouse to thee ; but thou
must discover thyself to me. I desire to love thee, but discover thy love
first ; all I can do is but reflection. Thou must shine on me first. So
desire God to reveal himself more and more in Christ Jesus ; and then we
cannot but carry ourselves to him as we should do in our relation.

This day we must perform the relation on our sides. There be two
words that go to this heavenly bargain. The covenant consisteth of two
parts. Now, desire God, by his grace, to enable us to do our part, for he
doth both. And desire him, according to his promise, to teach us to love
him, and 'to write his law in our hearts,' Jer. xxxi. 33, to do what is
good ; and circumcise our hearts, and give his Holy Spirit. We ask no
more than he hath promised, and so go boldly to him. Lord, thou hast
made a covenant with us ; we cannot keep it without thee. Thou hast
not only promised grace and gifts, but the grace to perform the covenant
on our parts must come from thee. And this God will do. Therefore in
the use of means, attend upon him ; and looking to him, we shall have
grace to do our parts, and then maintain this assurance, without which
we cannot live as Christians should live.

That we may further maintain this relation, that God is our God, let us
labour to get into Christ, for it is in him that God is our Father ; and to
grow up in Christ, to grow more and more, to grow up in faith and in all
grace.

A gracious Christian never wanteth arguments of assurance of salvation.
It is the dead-hearted Christian, the careless Christian. Therefore labour,
as to be in Christ, so to grow up in the knowledge of Christ.

And so to know God in Christ, labour to see the face of God in Christ ;

or in him are all the beams of his love. As the beams of the sun in a

glass are gathered, so the beams of all God's love meet in Christ. So

VOL. VI. H h

482 A HEAVENLY CONFEEENCE.

lovely is God in Christ, whatsoever we have in Christ it is from God in
Christ. And whatsoever we have from God, it is through Christ ; there-
fore grow in the knowledge of Christ, in faith in Christ. To this end are
the sacraments, that we might grow up in him, and be fed into Christ.
And then we may make right use of it, as the ordinance that God hath
sanctified for this end. And as God doth take us out and set a stamp
upon us, so labour to make choice of God more and more, and choice of
God in Christ ; for there be the two objects of our faith and love. Choose
God for our God, and esteem him above all, and renounce all other, and
resign ourselves wholly to him ; for all is ours when God is ours. He
setteth us apart from other men — taking us out — and appropriateth us to
himself, chooseth us for his jewels. I beseech you, labour daily to choose
God to be your God. If we say, we are God's, let us make choice of him
at the same time, and appropriate him with our choice. He is mine in
particular. There is renunciation of all others. I have served other gods
heretofore ; the world, and the flesh, and the favour of man have been my
god, but they shall be my god no more. If we choose him not, and ap-
propriate him as ours, and renounce all other, and give ourselves to him,
we cannot say he is ' our God.' This we should practise every day. In
the solicitation of sin, or despair for sin, make use of this choice, and ap-
propriation, and resignation. If we be tempted to any sin. Why, I am not
mine own, I am God's. I have chosen him to be my God ; I have appro-
priated myself to him ; I have renounced all other ; I have offered myself
to him ; therefore what have I to do with sin, with this temptation ? I
have taken the sacrament on it, that God is mine, and Christ is mine,
with all his benefits. Therefore if there be any solicitation to sin, make
this use of it ; and so we shall grow in assurance of our interest in God,
when we can make use of it on all occasions.

If when we be moved to any sin, by Satan, or our own flesh, which is a
devil within us, this is contrary to my covenant, this is contrary to the
renewing of the covenant, so often renewed in the sacrament, and therefore
I will not commit it. It is contrary to the state I am advanced to, and
contrary to my relation. God is my Father and my God, and therefore I
must be his ; and what have I to do with sin ? What hath pride to do
with a heart bequeathed to God ? What hath lust and filthiness ? What
hath injustice, or anything else that is sinful, to do in a heart that hath
dedicated and consecrated itself to God, who hath given up himself and
all he can do, and to whom we have given up all we have ? and shall
we give our strength to sin and Satan, his enemies ?

Thus we should grow in assurance, exercising the increase and know-
ledge of our interest. I beseech you, therefore, let us use these and the
Hke things to make God our God. And if any temptation to sin be joined,
as Satan cannot but solicit to sin, so he laboureth when we have sinned to
tempt to despair for sin ; for they be the two ways by which Satan pre-
vails. Now, fetch comfort against both from hence, * God is my God and
my Father,' and Christ teacheth them to call him so ; and therefore, not-
withstanding sin, I may go to God and call him Father. The disciples,
though their sin was great, yet on their humility they were to acknowledge
God to be their Father and their God. And therefore answer Satan : I
ought not to abuse, and break ofi", and deny my interest in God as my
Father and my God for any sin, because the disciples did not so ; and
Christ hath taught how to make use of God, and to acknowledge him for
my comfort. We cannot have a better guide than God ; and therefore

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 483

never think of God but as ' our God and our Father,' and labour to answer
all Satan's temptations in that kind from hence.

Use 4. Again, This assurance, that God is our God in Christ, and our
Father, is wrought by the sealing of the Spirit, and sanctifging of iis ; there-
fore take heed ice grieve not the Spirit of God. God's Spirit moveth our
hearts oftentimes in hearing the word, or reading, or praying ; when we
have any good motions, or when we entertain them ; and therefore do not
grieve the Spirit of God, whose office is ' to seal us to the day of redemp-
tion,' to assure us God is our God and our Father in Christ. Grieve him
not, lest he grieve us, by racking and tormenting our consciences. That
is the way to maintain our interest. Take heed of crossing the Spirit,
especially by any sin against conscience. Conscience is God's deputy.
Grieve not the Spirit. Grieve not conscience, for conscience is God's
deputative. It is a little god within us. And therefore, if we will not
alienate God from us, to whom we have given ourselves if we be true
believers, do nothing against his deputy and agent, the Spirit that sancti-
fieth and sealeth us to the day of redemption.

This is the way to maintain assurance, that God is our God. For men
may be led with a spirit of presumption, and say, God is my God. But if
conscience telleth them, they live in sin against conscience and the motions
of the Spirit, and suppress them, and kill them, as births that they would
not have grow in their hearts ; then they cannot say God is my God, but
conscience telleth them they lie. And therefore, I beseech you, labour for
an holy life. That faith that maketh this claim, that God is my Father
and my God, is a purifying faith, 1 John iii. 3. It is a faith quickening
the soul, a faith purifying, a faith cleansing. Faith is wonderfully operative,
especially having these promises. What promises ? ' I will be your God
and your Father.' ' Having such promises, let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and grow up in all holiness in the fear of
the Lord.' And therefore labour for that faith that layeth hold upon this
privilege, God is our Father and our God. Make it good by this, that it
be a purifying faith, an operative faith, that worketh by love, that sheweth
itself in our conversation. The more we labour and grow this way, the
more we grow in assurance of salvation.

Beloved, favour cannot be maintained with great persons without much
industry, and respect, and observance of distance. A man that will main-
tain the favour of great persons must be well read in their dispositions,
must know how to please them, and yield them all observance and respect.
And shall we think then to preserve respect with God without much
industry and holiness ? It cannot be. * And therefore give all diligence,'
not a little, * to make your calling and election sure,' 2 Peter i. 10. It
requireth all diligence, it is worth your pains. We live on this, that he is
our God, and will be our God to death and in death, for ever and ever.
That God is our God to everlasting, that he is of an equal extent with the
soul, he liveth to fill it and make it happy, our souls being of an eternal
subsistence. Therefore it standeth us upon ' to give all diligence to make
our calling and election sure,' else it will not be maintained. Why do not
Christians enjoy the comforts of this, that God is their God in Christ, more
than they do ?' The reason is, they be negligent to maintain intercourse
between God and them. We must know our distances, there must be
reverent carriage to God, Ps. ii. 11. A loose Christian can never enjoy
the comforts of God. He is so great, and we so mean, we ought to
reverence him, we ought to * love him with fear, and rejoice with trembling,'

484 A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.

Ps. ii. 11. Humble thyself to walk with thy God. Where there is a great
deal of huraility, it maintaineth friendship. We cannot walk with God as
a friend, as Abraham is said to be God's friend. We must acknowledge
ourselves to be ' dust and ashes,' know him in his greatness, and ourselves
in our meanness, if he will maintain this to our hearts, that God is our
God. If we be careful to maintain this, surely he that delighteth himself
in the prosperity of his servants will delight to make himself more and
more known to us, that we may be assured of our salvation.

All that hear me are such as have not yet made choice of God to be
their God, or have made choice. Let me speak a word to both ; for there
be many that yet have their choice to make, that have other lords and
other gods to rule over them. Let them consider what a fearful state it
is not to be able to say, in regard of life everlasting, ' God is my God and
my Father.' They can say they be God's creatures ; but what a fearful
condition is it not to be able to say, God is my Father. Will not these
know whom he is not a God to in favour, he will be a God to in vengeance ?
He must be a friend or enemy. There is no third in God. God and the
devil divide all mankind. They share all. If thou be not God's, and
canst not say so on good titles, thou art the devil's. Yet God is daily
pulling men out of the kingdom of the devil, by opening their eyes to see
their miserable condition ; yet all go under these two grand titles, God's
and the devil's. If thou canst not say, God is thy God, then the devil is
thy god ; and what a fearful condition is it to be under the god of the
world by a worldly, carnal disposition ! And perhaps thou mayest die so,
if thou be not careful to get out of it. If God be not our God, he is our
enemy ; and then creatures, angels, devils are against us, conscience against
us, word against us. If he be for us, who is against us ? If he be against
us, who is for us ? A terrible condition, and therefore get out of it, I
beseech you.

But how shall I do ? Is there mercy for such a vsretch ? Yea, be
offereth himself to be thy God if thou wilt come in. Wherefore serveth
our ministry, the word of grace, but to preach life to all repentant sinners.
' He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy.' And there-
fore God hath ordained ambassadors of peace to proclaim if you will come
in. And he entreateth you to come in, and he chargeth and commandeth
you. You be rebels, not only against him, but enemies to your own souls
if you do not. And therefore I beseech you, if you be not yet come in.
Add this more, you be sacrilegious persons if you be not Christians in
earnest. Have not you given yourselves to God in baptism ? And have
not you in your lives given yourselves to lusts which you renounced at
your baptism ? Now you have alienated yourselves from God, to whom
you were dedicated. Did not you engage yourselves to God in your
baptism ? And is not he willing to receive you ? He thought of you
when you could not think of yourselves. And therefore, as it bindeth you
over to greater punishment if you will not come in, but continue sacrilegious
persons from God to whom you have dedicated yourselves, so God pre-
venteth* you with mercy.

He encourageth by the seal of election in baptism to make it good by
faith, without which it will do no good, being but a seal to a blank.
Therefore how many encouragements have you to come in ? Take God's
gracious offer. He giveth you time. Make your peace. It is nothing
but wilful rebellion to stand out against God.

* That is, = ' God has come before with mercy, eg., baptism,' &c. — G.

A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE. 485

For they that have given themselves to God, and now renewed their
interest in him by the sacraments, let them conceive what a word of com-
fort they have in this, that Christ is theirs and God is theirs. What an
ocean of comforts is it when all things leave you, as all things will ; yet
we have God, that will be a God for evermore. At the time of death, what
comfort will it be to say, God is mine, Christ is mine. Life is mine no
longer ; world is mine no longer ; friends forsake me, but I am interested
in God, and have made covenant with God, who is a God for ever. The
covenant I have made is an ' everlasting covenant.' It is of that largeness,
the comfort is, that the angels themselves admire it,* the devils envy it,
and it is a matter of glory and praise in heaven for ever. Therefore make
much of such a privilege, that is the envy of devils, the admiration of angels,
that is the joy of a Christian's heart here, and matter of glorifying God for
ever, world without end. That God in Christ is become his God here and
for ever, it is a ravishing consideration. It is larger than om- hearts.
Here be comforts larger than the capacity of our hearts. Cor vcstrwn soli
Deo patere debet : our hearts ought all to lie open to divine things, for they
have more in them than the heart can contain. If we will shut them, shut
them to worldly things. Oh the comfort of a Christian that hath made
his state sure : let him glory in the Lord.

There be three degrees of glory in all. Let him glory under hope of
glory, glory in afflictions, and glory in God ; that is, we glory in God to be
our God. That in the sharing and dividing of all things God hath given
himself to us ; and what an offer is this, that when God divideth this world
to the children of men, you shall have this and that, but you shall not
have me. But to his children he hath given himself, and he hath nothing
better to give, and indeed there is nothing else needs. For there is more
in it than we can speak. But that when God divideth all things he should
give such a share as himself, is not this a glory, that a poor creature
should have God to be his, and all he hath to be his, to make use of it in
life and in death ? It is worth all the world ; it is worth our endeavours
' to make our calling and election sure,' when we may have this comfort
from it, 2 Peter i. 10.

* That is, ' wonder.' — G.

NOTES.

(a) P. 416. — ' ScEvitum est in eadavera, scevitum est in ossa, smvitum est in cineres
(Cyprian)— of the Roman emperors' cruelty, to remove a dead body.' This Father
has many eloquent passages on the reverence due to the ' body ' of the believer
as formerly a ' temple ' of the Holy Ghost ; and the present is a reminiscence of
one of them. ■■ o, , • . e

(b) P. 416.—' She turned herself back. The same phrase the Septuagint use of
Lot's wife looking back.' Genesis xix. 26 in the LXX. is as foUows :— Ka/ gas/SXe-vj/si'
^ yuvrj avTOv ug ra ovisu.

(d) P. 422.—' Eabboni. ... It is a Syraic word.' See Robinson under Pa/3,5/
and Gesenius under 21 and tJlT By Syriac, Sibbes means Hebrew, a common use

of the term by him and his contemporaries. ^

(e) P. 423. ' As Austin saith, Non frustra dicit anima, Deus salus tua. Of.

Augustine, De Arbitrio, and in loc. _

(/) P. 429.—' For the word " touch," in the original, doth not signify merely,
&c. The verb is cC'Ttw, on which see Robinson, sub voce ; and on the passage, for
excellent remarks, consult Webster and Wilkinson.

486 A HEAVENLY CONFEEENCE.

(g) P. 430. — ' As Augustine saith well, Mittefidem in ccelum et tcfigisti. As he said
in the sacrament, Quid paras dentem et ventrem? Crede et manducasti.' For the first
part of this reference see Com. or Horn, on Mat. ix. 21 ; for the latter, of. Tract 26
in Joan ; e. g., ' Credere in Christum hoc est manducare vivum ; ' also in Joh.
Evang. c. vi.

(A) P. 457. — ' It is an eternal relation, Dum percutis, pater es, dum castigas,
pater es, saith Austin.' One of the often-recurring apophthegms of the ' Confessions '
and Theology of this Father.

[i) P, 463. — ' " There is a world taken out of the world," as Austin saith.' Cf.
remark under note h. It is the ground of his entire doctrine of Predestination.

(y ) P. 471. — ' As the Grecian calleth him ; they be for all turns,' &c. See note
eeee, Vol. III. p. 536. G.

KING DAVID'S EPITAPH.

NOTE.

' King David's Epitaph' appeared originally in ' The Beams of Divine Light. '
(4to, 1639). The separate title-page is given below.* For general title-page, see
Vol. V. page 220. G.

*KIN G
DAVID'S
EPITAPH :

OR,

An Epitome of the life and death
of King David.

In three Sermons.

By
The late learned, and reverend Divine,
Richard Sies.
Doctor in Divinitie, Master of Katherine-Hall
in Cambridge ; and sometimes Prea-
cher at Grayes-Inne,

Luke I. 74, 75.
That we being delivered from our enemies, might serve him
in holinesse andrighteousnesse before him, all the dayes of
our lives.

2 Sam. 14. 14.
For we must needs die, and are as water spilt upon the ground.

London,

Printed by E. P. for Nicholas Bourne

and Rapha Harford.

KING DAVID'S EPITAPH.

For David, after in his oivn generation he had served the counsel (or will) of
God, he fell asleep, and was laid to his fathers, and saw corruption. —
Acts XIII. 36.

The words are part of a sermon of blessed St Paul, wherein he proves out
of the Old Testament, Ps. xvi. 10, that David prophesied of Christ, and not
of himself. David saw corruption, but he of whom David spake ' saw no
corruption,' therefore David was not the Messias. He shews that the
things there spoken do no way agree to David, but to the Messias, who
saw no corruption. ' For David, after he had served in his own genera-
tion, fell asleep, and saw corruption.' In general, observe this :

One of the best ivays to understand the Scriptures is to compare the Old
Testament and the New tor/ether.

1. That which icas spoken and foretold of Christ in the Old Testament, and
fulfilled in the New, that must needs he true. Christ is the true Messias.
Why ? It was foretold so of him in the Old Testament, and accomphshed
in the New. Therefore Christ is the true Messias, comparing the pro-
phecy and the event together. For the Old and New Testament make
up but this syllogism : he that should be so and so, as was prophesied,
born of a virgin, that should come at such a time, in the latter end of
Daniel's weeks, &c., he is the true Messias. But Christ was such a one;
he was born of a virgin, came at such a time, he saw no corruption, for he
rose the third day. Therefore Christ is the true Messias.

2. Again, You see the Holy Ghost here could not mention David xcithout
terms of honour : ' David, after he had served the will of God in his gene-
ration,' &c. Precious to God is both the life and death of his saints, Ps.
cxvi. 15. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance, Ps.
cxii. 6. The name of Josias is as an ointment poured out. So indeed
the names of holy men are as ointment poured out ; they sweeten men
when they are gone. David's body was buried among them ; but David
had a better tomb. He was buried in the best monument : in the hearts
and remembrance of God's people, and in the remembrance of God. God
wraps him up as a valiant man in his own colours. He mentions not
David barely here, but his serving the will of God.

Let wicked men cast what aspersions they will upon the names of God's
people, let them eclipse them and cloud them as they please, as their

490

KING DAVID S EPITAPH.

malice instigates them therein, the names and reputations of God's people
are not in their keeping and power. For David shall have a good name,
in spite of all the Doegs and Shimeis, when they are rotten, body and
name together. We see here, many hundred years after, he is mentioned
with titles of honour. It should encourage us, therefore, to serve God as
we regard a good name.

Mark here the laiujuarje of the Holy Ghost, the language of Canaan.
When he speaks of a good man, he speaks of him in favoured terms. He
doth not say that David, after he had been so long, or lived so long, or
reigned and flourished so long, as we see in stories, such a man lived or
reigned, &c., so long, and then died; yet this had been true ; after he had
lived and reigned so long, he died. But that is not the language of the
Holy Ghost ; but after he had ' served God ' so long. The Scripture
values men by that that God values them, and not as men do, by their life,
and reign, and flourishing in the world, and their esteem with men, but as
his carriage hath been to God. David ' served the will of God ' in his
generation.

And then, when he speaks of his death, ' he fell asleep ; ' he sweetens
the harsh name of death with a sweet term the Scripture puts upon it. It
is a comfortable thing to consider the very language of the Scripture ; how
savoury and heavenly it is, raising us up to comfortable and heavenly
thoughts, even from the very manner of the phrase. Difierent, as I said,
is the phrase of Scripture from other histories, that say, such a man lived
and reigned so long, and then he died. And indeed a man may say of a
wicked man, he was so long in the world ; but if he did no good, a
man can scarce say that he lived ; for what is life without doing good but
a mere being in the world ? Or if his life be ill, we may say such a man
troubled the world so many years, and then went to his own place, as it is
said of Judas, Acts i. 25. But this is the epitaph of a holy man. He
served God so long, and then he slept and had happiness of God : another
manner of epitaph than other men have when they are gone. This I
observe from the very language or phrase. ' David, when he had served
the will, or counsel, of God,' as the word is (a).

3. Again, In the third place, observe this in general, that God sets down
David here only as he icas a good man, and jmsseth by all his infirmities and
breaches, whereas, alas ! David's life was woven with good and ill. There
were some ill spots in that excellent garment ; there were some iU
parentheses made in that excellent speech ; there was somewhat, by the
infirmity of man, that was not so good. But doth God speak of that when
he mentions David ? Oh no. But David, after he had served God in
his generation, &c. The Spirit of God in St Paul passeth by all that was
amiss, and sets down that which is good, to shew us this comfortable point,
that God values those that are in Christ (and have repented of their sins),
not by what they have been or have done at some time, but by what they are,
and what they resolve to be.

God values them by their better part ; by that that is his in them, by
that that is spiritual in them. He judgeth them by the tenor of their lives,
and not by a particular flaw in their lives. This is God's infinite mercy ;
when he pardons, he pardons absolutely : he forgets as well as forgives.
Therefore the phrase of Scripture runs, ' He will cast our sins behind his
back, and cast them into the bottom of the sea, that they shall never rise
up in remembrance,' Micah vii. 19. When we have once repented of our
sins, they are to him as if they had never been done, they are as things

KING David's epitaph. 491

forgotten. Peter, after his foul fall, he was not so much as upbraided by
Christ m particular, 'Thou hast denied me,' &c. ; only Christ comes
sweetly over him with a question, ' Lovest thou me ? ' John xxi. 15. He
tells him not, thou hast betrayed me thus and thus. No; he doth not so
much as upbraid him with the mention of it. So curious^;= is God for
troubling the peace of his people, that when they have soundly repented
ot their sins, they shall never hear of it to their confusion, nor at all,
except it be to better them, and to perfect the work of humiliation.

Contrary to the fashion of the corrupt poisonful nature of man : if they
have but one thing in all a man's life to hit him in the teeth with, he shall
be sure to hear of it oft enough, and pass by whatsoever is good in him.
trod doth not so with his children ; but though they have some breaches
m their lives, he passeth by them, and takes notice of that which is good
in them, as we see here the apostle doth, being directed by the Spirit of

But though God so sweetly pass by David's faults when he mentions
him, and calls him a 'man after his own heart,' &c.,yet there is one thing
that God puts in as a scar upon David. ' He was a man after God's own
heart in all things but in the matter of Uriah,' 1 Kings xv. 5 Why doth
that come in Scripture ? Surely God mentions that, because that was
done with more deliberation and advice ; it was done in cold blood. It
was not infirmity, but presumption in that. Now the more will there is in
any action of sin, the more heinous the sin is, the more the guilt is increased.
Ihere was more will in that, for it was not done in heat of passion, but
dehbemtely, therefore it was a foul act. The Spirit of God takes notice
both of the good and of the evil ; as we see in the epistles, in Rev. ii., to
the churches. He had found fault with them before, and indeed God dis-
cerns directly when we are to blame, ' yet this thou hast, that thou hatest
the works of the Nicolaitans,' &c. If there be any good, God takes notice
of it. David, after he had repented of that foul sin, and was sharply cor-
rected for it, as indeed he was, David was a good man for all that, ' he
served God in his generation.'

But to give you an item by the way : however God passed by the sin in
David, and accounted him after his repentance a good man, yet he must
be sharply corrected for it. Let no man therefore presume upon this that
God will judge him by the tenor of his life, and therefore he will commit
particular enormities. Oh no ! It cost David dear ; for besides his heart-
smart in his own particular, God made his heart ^bleed. It cost him many a
salt tear, besides that it was punished in^his posterity. God raised up his
own bowels to take arms against him ;' he made him wish a thousand
times that he had not so offended God. It is ill trying conclusions with
God. Though God afterwards pardon us, and turn all to good, yet it
shall cost us dear first. Though God will bring us to heaven, yet if we
will venture upon sins against conscience, and take liberty to offend God,
he will take sharp courses with us. Yet it shall not prejudice our salva-
tion. You see those sins of David, after he had repented and was
corrected for them, they were forgotten, and David, in regard of the course
of his life, ' served God.' His hfe was a service of God, notwithstanding
some particular actions. These things may be useful to the best of us all.
Therefore I observe them in general from God's manner of mentioning
David here with honour, and passing by his infirmities. To come more
particularly to the words.

* That is, ' careful or scrupulous.' — Ed.

492

KING DAVID S EPITAPH.

* Then David, after lie had served in his generation the will of God,' &c.

The words are a short epitome of the life and death of the blessed man
David. First, I will speak of his life, and then of his death. In his life
there are these two parts :

_ First, The time in which he lived ; when this service was done, ' in
his generation.'

And then the manner of his carriage in that time of his generation. It
was a service of God, ' he served God.'

And this service of God is set down by the object of it, ' God.' By the
rule of his worship, ' the will of God.' He served God, but how ? As
he had revealed his will to him, not at random. God will be served
according to his own will. And then here is the act, ' he served.' So
here is the proper object of worship, ' God,' in whom all our service is
terminate. Whatsoever we do, it must rest in him. If we do good works
to men, it must be for God's sake ; we must serve God in it. Then here
is the proper rule carrying us to that object, ' his will.' And then it must
be a service ; it must be done in obedience to God. ' David in his gene-
ration served the ,will, or counsel, of God,' as the word is {h). For his
death, we shall speak of it after.

_ First, For the time: 'in his generation.' * Generation,' in the Scripture,
signifies a succession of men one after another, as you have it in Mat. i. 1,
from such a one to such a one ; so many generations, so many successions.
You know in the Latin tongue, secidum is taken for an age or generation,
the space of an hundred years, though Moses shut up the life of man in a
shorter time. Succession of one man after another is a generation.
Generation, sometimes in a general sense, is taken for all of one kind.
The generation of Noah, and the generation of the righteous ; that is, all
of that kind, without restraining it to succession. But most commonly it
IS the consideration of men from succession of them, having the term from
the way whereby we enter into the world, that is, by generation ; therefore
the succession of men from one to another is called generation.

Now, here generation implies both the times and the persons. The
persons of men are a several generation, and the time wherein they live is
a generation, and both are here included. ' David in his generation,'
among the age of men, and in the time wherein he lived, ' served God.'
The meaning of the place is clear. The points considerable here are,

First of all. That there is a generation, a succession of men one after
another.

_ Secondly, That every man hath his particular generation. David had
his generation, wherein he served the Lord.

Thirdly, That 'he served God in his generation;' that is, the whole time
of his generation ; yet with this Hmitation, he served God only in his
generation while he was here, before he came to heaven. In heaven there
is a kind of service, but it is not by way of work, but of reward. We must
serve God in our generation here. If ever we look to reap hereafter, we
must sow now. ' David served God in his generation.'

Obs. 1. First of all. There is a generation, a succession of men.

Particular men go oif the stage, but the species, the kind, is eternal.
Kinds of things continue for ever. Man dies not, but Paul, and Peter,
and David die ; there is a succession of particular men. It is with men
as it is with the waves of the sea ; one wave goes away, and another comes
after. It is with men as it is with trees ; for men are compared in Scrip-
ture to trees, trees of righteousness ; and man, take him in his nature, is

KING David's epitaph. 493

like a tree. The poet could say to that purpose (c). It is with men as
with trees ; some fall off in autumn, and others come in their place the
next spring. So it is with men. They have their several generations.
There is an autumn, a decay, and there is a spring of them. There is a
succession of generations.

Use 1. To teach us this lesson, that our time heing short here, every man
hath his generation ; one generation goeth away and another cometh, as
the Scripture saith, Eccles. i. 4. We must he laid with our fathers, and
others must stand up in our place. ' Kise up,' Joshua, ' for Moses my
servant is dead, saith the Lord,' Josh. i. 2. One servant of God dies and
another rises. There be many that must act their parts in this world.
Therefore some must go off the stage, that others may come on. There-
fore while we have time here, let us be sure to do good, before we be taken
away, suddenly, we know not how soon, and there be no more generation.
Here there will be a succession of generations, till we all meet in heaven,
and then there will be no succession, there shall be no more death ; but as
the apostle saith, * we shall be for ever with the Lord,' 1 Thes. iv. 17.

Use 2. And it should teach us likewise, considering that in regard of our
being and natural condition in the world there are several successions, gene-
ration after generation, that now we are here, and presently after no more
seen in the world, to make sure an eternal generation ; to he horn anew of the
immortal seed that never dies, as St Peter saith, 1 Pet. i. 23, that tends to
immortality. There is no death in that birth. A Christian, as he is a
new creature, hath a generation to eternity ; he never dies. In regard of
our being here, there is generation after generation, successions of men ;
but when we are new born, though we cease to be here, we go to heaven.
' He that believes in me,' saith Christ, ' shall never die,' John xi. 26.
' Man that is born of a woman,' saith Job, ' hath but a short time to live,'
and that short time ' is full of misery,' Job v. 7. But man that is born
of the Spirit hath an eternal time to live, and that a happy life. All flesh
is grass in regard of this life we lead, which is supported with meat and
drink, and the comforts of this life : all flesh is grass, and the beauty of
it as the flower of the grass ; but the word of God endureth for ever ; and
as St John saith, ' he that doth the will of God endureth for ever,' vi. 27.
The word of God endures for ever, because it makes us, having the Spirit
of God, to endure for ever. The world passeth, and the lusts of it, but
he that doth the will of God, that is new born by the word of God, and
transformed to the obedience of God, he abides for ever. Would you abide
for ever, and not pass from alteration to alteration — as wicked men, they
alter and come to nothing, and worse than nothing ? Then labour for this
estate. This is the way to abide for ever. This life hath no date of days,
no death.

Labour to plant ourselves in Christ by faith, that so in him we may have
an eternal estate. ' Thou art our habitation from generation to generation,'
Ps. xc. 1. It was a psalm that was made upon occasion of their falling away
in the wilderness. They dropped away as leaves, and few of them came
to Canaan. ' Well,' saith he, ' we fall away here, and wither as grass,' &c.
' But thou art our God from generation to generation ;' that is, we have a
perpetual subsistence in thee. A Christian when he is in God by being in
Christ, hath a perpetual everlasting subsistence. As we are temples of
God, so he is our temple. We dwell in him, ' thou art our habitation,'
&c. Who would not labour to be in such an estate ? for in this world
there is nothing but a succession of generations.

494 KING David's epitaph.

Obs. 2. Secondly, Every man hath a particular generation. There is
some emphasis in this. * David in his generation.' For men drop not
into the world at all adventure ; but every man hath his own time
appointed ; when to come into the world and when to go out ; some in one
time, and some in another. Therefore the times wherein they live are
foreknown of God. He hath set down when such a man shall be born, in
such an age of the world. So long he shall live ; such work he shall
do ; and when he hath done his work, he shall be taken away hence, and
another shall come and stand up in his place. So every man hath his
own generation designed, and appointed, and ordained by God himself
from all eternity ; not only his generation, but all the circumstances of it.
The very place of his abode, the time, and season, and country where he
shall live, all are set down.

Use 1. It is useful for this end to observe in what times our lot is fallen,
to what times God hath reserved us ; what generation and age we live in : to
consider of the state of the times.

(1.) Are they good? Bless God that hath reserved us to those times. We
pity some good men [that lived in ill times ; as our countrymen in Queen
Mary's time, and other dark times. They were worthy men, and it was
pity they lived not in better ages. Certainly they would have been excel-
lent men then. Therefore we should bless God for reserving us to better
times. What makes the times better? The discovery of salvation by
Jesus Christ : the discovery of the means of happiness in another world.
In what age there is a clearer discovery, where there is most Spirit work-
ing together with the outward means, that is a blessed age. The Spirit of
God was not working so much in former times of darkness and popery.
Then there were many that followed the beast to their eternal destruction,
though God had mercy on many souls that followed him. As it is said
in Scripture, ' they followed Absalom in the simplicity of their hearts, not
knowing whither they went,' 2 Sam. xv. 11, so they followed popery in
the simplicity of their hearts, not knowing the danger. God had mercy on
them ; yet certainly thousands of them were wrapped up in darkness.
They were miserable times then. Those that know popery will say so.
Those that read the story will say so. The world was wrapped in wars
and miseries in those times.

It is true our times are not so good as they should be, and in many
regards they are miserable times ; and we must not murmur at this dis-
pensation of God, if God hath so appointed that our lot shall be to live in
hard and ill times. I say in some respects these are bad times ; for the
world, the older it grows, the worse it is. As it is in a sink, the farther
it goes the more soil it gathers ; so all the soil of former times are met in the
sink of later times, and in that respect this generation is an ill generation.

(2.) But if ive consider ivhat makes times good; the manifestation of
Christ's glorious gospel, that hath shined for a hundred years and more in
our church ; the discovery of the means of salvation so clearly ; the
abundance of the Spirit with the means, making men to apprehend the
means ; enlightening their understandings to make use of them, and work-
ing their hearts to obedience. Look in what age these are ; they are
happy times. Witness our Saviour, and he is the best judge : ' Happy are
the eyes that see the things that ye see, and the ears that hear the things
that you hear,' Mat. xiii. 17. Oh, in former times, if they had seen that
that we see, and heard that that we hear, they would have accounted them-
selves happy. Oh, those that lived two hundred years ago, though they

KING David's epitaph. 495

were good men, if they had lived to see that that we see, and to hear that
that we hear, living in the glorious lustre and sunshine of the gospel, how
would it have rejoiced them ! Therefore, as we have cause to consider of
the ills of the time and generation, that we be not swayed away with them,
BO we have cause on the other side to bless God, that hath reserved us to
these times of knowledge. In regard of the ills we may say with St Austin,
' Lord, to what times are we reserved !' [d). But in regard of the good
things we may say, Blessed be God, that hath reserved for us these things,
that he hath cast our time thus ; that we should be born in this genera-
tion ; in the blessed time of the gospel ; in this second spring of the gos-
pel. We should bless God for it.

Use 2. Well, but that is not all. We are to be accountable to God for
the time and means we enjoy here in our generation. If we be not the
better for it, tve shall be so much the u-orse. It had been better for us to
have been born in times of popery and darkness, in places of ignorance,
than livingi n the glorious times of the gospel, and in places where the light
is discovered, and to be naught in the midst of such light. Those that
are bad now are very bad. We see by experience, that of all men, the
most outrageous wretched persons are those that are ill in good places ;
for God gives them up to more than an ordinary measure of profaneness.
A man shall have better and more civil usage. He shall see better carriage
in a pagan than in many Christians that are not good under the means.
There be degrees of those that are naught. Some God gives up to a pro-
fane spirit in the midst of the means, a fearful brand. Those that are bad
now in the glorious times of the gospel, their sins are presumptuous sins.
They are not damned simply for sinning, so much as for sinning against
the means, for sinning against such light, for sinning in these times. Those
that lived in darkness they could do no better. What, to be swearers
now ! to be licentious, disordered persons now ! to contemn holy things
now ! to be corrupt in our callings now ! in this generation, when the light
of the gospel hath so gloriously shined ! What excuse can men have for
their sins now ? Certainly it shall aggravate their damnation, that they
were children of darkness in the midst of light. Nothing will trouble their
consciences so much as that they have offended against so many means,
and so many helps as they had in the days they lived in. I beseech you,
therefore, as we should bless God for reserving us for these times and
places of knowledge and hght, so let us take heed lest they be a means of
aggravating our damnation afterward, that we shall wish that we had never
been born in such times, but rather in times of darkness. It shall go
better with our forefathers that lived in darker times, than with us, if we
live in profane and ungodly courses.

Use 3. Now there is no generation so good, but there be gross sins in
all times and generations, therefore let every man be careful (as to consider
the good of the generation, to take good by it, so likewise) to consider the
sins of the times ivherein he lives, that he be not tainted ivith the sins of that
generation. God's children have a counter-motion, a contrary motion to
the motion of wicked persons in every generation ; therefore in our gene-
ration let us do as David did in his generation, stand against the ills of the
times, go against the stream in that which is ill. It is the commendation
you see in the Old Testament. ' Noah was a good man in his generation,'
Gen. vi. 9, and such and such were good men in their generations. * David
in his generation served God,' and yet the times were naught. ' Help,
Lord,' saith he, 'for godly men perish from the earth,' Ps. xii. 1. The

496

KING DAVID S EPITAPH.

times were naught when he lived. There was Doeg, and Ahithophel, and
Shimei, and other wicked men ; yet David ' was a good man in his gene-
ration.' He was not carried with the stream of the times.

A godly man considers who are good and who ai'e naught in his genera-
tion, and he walks to heaven with those that are good, though they be
never so few. He goes in a contrary motion to others. He doth not
conform to the world, Rom. xii. 2, ' he fashions not himself according to
the world,' according to the wicked men in the generation he lives in ; but
he fashions himself to them that are of another world, that go a contrary
way to the world.

Use 4. Every generation hath a genius both for manners and study ;
former times they were given to barbarism ; now these times are more
refined for outward respects. So for sins : evenj age hath particular sins
that reign ; superstition in former times, but now the clean contrary : pro-
faneness, atheism, hardness of heart against the light, presumption, loose-
ness, and the like. Now these being the sins of our times, we should go
so much the stronger against the stream of profaneness and atheism. , The
devil discovers himself in divers shapes, in divers generations. Sometimes
he prevails with ignorance, and then he is a spirit of darkness, sometimes
he is a spirit of profaneness and looseness. Now consider by what sins the
devil hath most advantage, and be sure to set ourselves against them.

Use 5. And let every one in his place labour to make the generation we
live in as good as ice can. Why doth God speak thus honourably of David ?
' He served G-od in his generation.' That time was the better for him.
We have all cause to bless God for such men, they are blessed men. Let
every one of us in our generation carry ourselves so, that when we are
gone, it may be said. Such a man did much good in his time and place,
and hindered much ill. What a blessed thing is it when in our generation
we hinder all the ill and do all the good we can, that others may say to
our comfort and credit, The times and place was the better for such a man.
Beloved, every one of us hath his generation. Some have a longer gene-
ration, some a shorter ; some have a longer glass appointed to run out,
some their glass is run out in a shorter time. Well, be it longer or shorter,
let us be careful that we trifle not out our generation and time wherein we
live unprofitably. That little part of time that God hath given us to work
in, let us be sure to bestir ourselves in our generation, we know not how
long or short our generation is.

Alas ! if most men ask their own consciences, wherefore they live ? what
is the life of many, but an annoyance ? They infect the air with their
oaths, they are a burthen to the earth, they mis-spend the blessings of God ;
but what hath the times been the better for them ? Their lives have been
scandalous, wicked, and vicious. It should be our glory to shine in our
times, ' as lights in the midst of a sinful generation,' Philip, ii. 15. I
beseech you, therefore, let us take the counsel of holy St Paul : Gal. vi. 9,
' While we have time, let us do good.' While we have a part to act here
upon the stage of this world, let us act our parts, do that wherefore we
came into the world. We have not assurance from God that our genera-
tion shall hold thus long or thus long. Therefore whatsoever we have to
do, let us do it presently ; let us reform our wicked lives presently, ' before
we go hence and be no more seen,' Ps. xxxix. 13. And for the good we
have to do, do it presently, put it not off. No man is assured of his con-
tinuance here.

Obs. 3. In the next place, * David served God in his generation.' He did

KING David's epitaph. 497

not do it by starts and fits. He did not do this or tliat good act ; but he
served God in his whole generation. So must every man not only be con-
tent to do now and then a good action ; for the veriest wicked man in the
world may do good sometimes, and the best men may do ill sometimes ;
but in the whole course of our life, we must do good in our generation.
Our course must be holy, the whole tenor of our lives, while wc are in the
world. All things have their time, but there is no time for sin ; there is
no time for vanity ; no time for swearing ; no time for sensuality and
looseness.

Therefore let the whole course of our lives be spent in the service of
God. What do we know but that that little time wherein we yield to the
service of the devil may be the time when God will fetch us hence ? And
what will become of us then ? Therefore resolve not a moment to serve
sin. Our whole time is but short in respect of eternity. What is our
generation to world without end ? Therefore let us be content to serve
God our whole generation.

' He served God in his generation,'' that is, in his Hfetime, while he was
here. For God hath placed us in the world to do him some work. This
is God's working place ; he hath houses of work for us. Now our lot here
is to do work, to be in some calling and course to work for God. We are
not sent here into the world to play, or to live idly. Keligion is no vocal
profession. Every man must have some calling or other, and in his genera-
tion he must do good. For what will our account be afterwards else, when
we shall give an account to God how we have spent our time in our gener-
ation, what good we did, what ill we hindered ? It will be a fearful account
when we have spent our time idly, perhaps scandalously and offensively,
and sent others to hell by our example. We must serve God in our
generation, in our life.

Thou that Hvest profanely day after day, when dost thou mean to serve
God ? At the hour of death ? Did David serve God when he was to die
only ? No. ' He served God in his generation, and then fell asleep.'
Alas, why do we put ofi"? There is no sowing after this life. Then is the
time of reaping. And why wilt thou defer the time of sowing till thou come
to reap ? It is a time to reap the comforts of religion at the hour of death.
Shall we defer to serve God's will till we come to make our own will ? And
ofttimes it is forced what we do then. No. We must serve God all our
time. ' David served God all his generation.' To do a few good works at
our death only, it is a swinish doing good. The swine will do good when
he is dead. Then there is profit of his flesh, though all his life he were
noisome. Those men that put off thus, they are rather swine than men,
beastly men. God seldom accepts the good they do then, and it is a forced
good. If they were not to die then, no good at all would be done. That
they do is because they can keep it no longer. It shews they have no
grace nor faith at all, for if there had been faith to depend upon God they
would have done good before. But they think, I may come to misery my-
self, and I know not what distasteful, base thoughts ; therefore they will
do no good in their lifetime. But we must serve God in our generation if
we will be saved. These things are of some use, and we should not forget
them. But I come to the service itself, which I shall a little more stand
upon.

' David served the will of God.'

Here is considerable, as I told you, these three things.

VOL. VI. ' *

498 KING David's epitaph.

The object whom he served, ' God.'

The rule by which he served him, ' his will.' And then

The service itself; for to know * the will of God,' and not to serve him,
it is to no purpose. All must go together. We must serve ' the will of
God,' as we see here David did.

1. For the first, it is a known truth, that God is the main object of all
our service. Indeed, we serve men ; for in love, which is a very busy grace,
we must serve one another in good works : but the love of God must set
all on work, and all must be done in obedience to him. God is the object
that must terminate all our service to men. Whatsoever duty we do, we
must do it as to God. If we serve men, if we be Christians, it must be
with reference to God, because he commands us, and that we may honour
God. We can do no good to him, Ps. xvi. 2. What doth he care for our
goods ? But he hath substituted men in his place, he hath appointed
such and such men in our generation to do good unto, and he accounts
what we do to them for his sake, as done to him. God is the object of our
service, God in Christ as our Father.

' God,' as God, without Christ a mediator, ought to be served for our
very creation, if we were to go to hell when we had done, or should vanish
to nothing with the beasts ; for our very subordination and subjection to
God as creatures implies service. He is the object of service, as being our
maker, having given us a being, having given us reason to serve him. But
now God considered as a Father in Christ in the covenant of grace, we
ought to serve him in a higher regard ; not as creatures the Creator only,
and as servants their Lord, but as a gracious Father. So God the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, and Christ, Mediator, God-man, are the objects of
our service, the whole adequate, fit object. We must not go beyond them,
for whatsoever else we do, it must be in reference to them. I will not
dwell upon the point. It is a foundation to that I am to speak of.

The next thing is the rule of his service : ' He served the ivill of God.'

' The will of God.'

The word signifieth ' counsel,' and it is better translated ' counsel ' than
' will,' because it is more emphatical. God's will is his counsel, not in
regard of imperfection in counsel ; for counsel implies somewhat imperfect,
as deliberation and consultation. God sees all at once ; he doth not
deliberate, but in regard of that which is eminent in counsel ; what is that ?
Wisdom. ^ By counsel thou shalt be established,' Prov. xix. 18. So what-
soever is God''s will, that is counsel. It is wise, it is weighed, it is as
' gold seven times tried,' Ps. xii. 6. Therefore we should stoop to what-
soever is God's will, either in his word or in events. His will is counsel.
He is wise, he is not rash. A pattern to all those that would be like God,
to do all by counsel and not by will. Those that are put to their will, if
there be not answerable wisdom to guide it, to what mishief do they plunge
themselves and others !

(1.) God must be served according to his counsel or xvill, as he hath dis-
covered himself in his word ; for service is nothing but an action done with
an eye to the will of another. For if a man doth an action that one would
have him do, if he do it not with respect to his command, it is no obedience
nor service. He that hath not some care in the act, it is no obedience.
As the civil law saith, infringit ohedientiam, &c. (e), it breaks from the
nature of obedience that hath no cause for it. He must know his reason ;
at the least there is the command of the superior must be a reason and
ground for what he doth in all his obedience and service. Therefore there

KING David's epitaph. 499

is a like necessity of the word of God as of his service, for what master will
be served accordmg to the will of his servant ? Wh; doth the S ptu e
mishke will-worship, worship that is according to our own will ? Because
therein we make ourselves god; we serve ourselves, and not God We

uould be bath to have a servant compliment with cap and knee and then
do as he list himself ; and so for us to come and com^hmen w t'h God to
hear his word as if we would be directed by him, to kneel and pray to him
for fashion, and then all our life after to do as we list. It is a delusion to
say we serve God, unless we serve him accordin^r to his vill

uJtln)rnfrf ^n'7 "^n^f * ^' ^ '''^' °^ "'^^ '''''''' ^"^ '^^'^^ ^-"^^ i' f^^^
nruen wmd of God. There was a time when the word of God was not

written, Heb 1. 1 ; and then God discovered his will by dreams and visions,

tj;!'?;'?^! 7T' ^f^ ''\''' *^' ''''^'^ ""''' ^^1'^^'^^^' ^^^d mankind
spread further traditions from hand to hand was not a fit means and way
to dehver truths, because it was subject to corruption. God therefore
would deliver his will how he would be served, in writing ; and God sanc-
tified this coui;se, and gave credit to it, by his own example, writing his
own law with his own finger. The ten commandments were written by
Cxod himself. God was the first preacher and the first writer. He was the
first preacher: he preached the gospel to Adam in paradise ; and the first
writer : theten commandments being written by God himself. Now we
have the written word of God to be our rule, how God must be served, an
exact and perfect rule. I will not speak by wav of controversy. I hope
we are grounded well enough, but by way of direction for a godly life.
God s will IS a sufficient rule.
What is requisite in a rule ?

(1.) First, A rule must be clear and open, that it may be made use of by
those that are to be regulated by it. Therefore we say, The secret will of
God can be no rule, because it is secret. That which is a rule must be
manifest and open. Therefore the revealed will of God, that every one may
see, that is our rule. We may cross God's secret will and do well • and
we may serve it and yet do ill. A father may pray for his child's life, and
may cross the secret will of God, and yet doth well. God allows bowels in
fathers. A wicked man may do according to God's secret will, and yet sin.
Therefore that was not the rule of David's service, nor cannot be of ours
' Secret things belong to God ; but revealed things to us and our children '
saith blessed Moses, Deut. xxix. 29. The will of God, as it is discovered,
must be the rule of our actions. A rule must be open, or else it is no rule.'
(2.) Again, The rule by which we must lead our lives it must he infallible:
not subject to error ; for then it cannot be the rule of our service. The
word of God is an infallible rule. It cannot deceive, because it is the word
of God. _ Men wrote it, indeed, but it was God that dictated it. The
finger writes, but the head dictates. Holy men wrote it according as they
were guided by the Holy Ghost. The will of any man cannot be'' the rule
of any man's service, further than it is agreeable to the first rule. Why ?
Because it is subject to error and mistake. That which must be the con
stant rule of a man's life, it must not be as popish traditions and the like.
It must be infalHble. Now, the word of God is so. It is infollible. A
man may err, and be a man, and a good man too; but God cannot err, and
be God. The word of God cannot be false and be the word of God.
Therefore it is an infallible rule.

When this is applied to any creature, it is a grand lie, and the foundation

500

KING DAVID S EPITAPH.

of misery in that church. This is the first lie in the church of Rome,
that the church, consisting of a company of men, cannot err. What a
horrible absurdity is this, to make the will of man the rule, that the church
cannot err, that poper}'- cannot err ! Though they err egregiously, they
account rebellion service, and make traitors merit, &c.

But are our tenets subject to such gross things ? No. We make the
rule of obedience the infallible word of God, that cannot err. To attribute
that of that which cannot err to that which can err, it is a horrible absur-
dity. But I will not enter into controversies.

(3.) Again, That which is a rule 77iust be perfect in commensuration, in
measure. It must be of equal extent to all things that are to be ruled.
Now the things that are to be ruled is our whole carriage and conversation.
Therefore that that is the rule for a man, it must rule his thoughts, his
speeches, and actions. So the word of God, it rules the whole carriage of
a man. There is a proportion between the rule and all things that are to
be ruled by it. All things fall under the word of God to be directed and
ruled by it. It gives direction to our thoughts, to our speeches, to our
actions, in our callings. It gives direction to magistrates, to ministers, to
masters, to servants, to all estates and conditions in life, in death. It is
exceeding large, as David saith: ' All things come to an end, but thy com-
mandments are exceeding large,' Ps. cxix. 96. It is a rule that extends to
all things that are to be ruled whatsoever. No other rule but God's will
doth so ; for men's laws they have nothing to do with thoughts. Thought
is free for them.

(4.) Again, A rule must be authcntical. What is that ? It must be
credited for itself. It must have authority of and for itself, and not depend
upon another, if it be the first rule. Incleed, there be subordinate rules.
There is a rule ruled, and a rule ruling men's laws. The magistrates will
it is a rule ruled by a higher rule ; and, as long as it is so, it is a good rule.
But there must be a rule ruling above all subordinate rules whatsoever.
What is that ? The word of God. It hath authority from itself, not bor-
rowed of men. It is a rule that rules all, and is ruled of none other's rule
but by this rule. This is a rule ruling the very rulers of the world. No
man's will is a law further than it is squared by this law of laws.

(5.) It is an inflexible rule. It cannot be bent to men's purposes. Man
would bring God's will to his will ; but it is the measure that measures all,
and is measured by none. For we must not judge the word, the word must
judge us. You have some presumptuous persons that will judge and mur-
mur at the word, but the word will be too good for them and judge them.
He that judgeth the law, and gives sentence on the law, shews himself a
fool ; the law must judge him, much more the law of God. Therefore it is
authentical.

These are the main properties of that that must be a rule to judge our
lives by. Now the word of God is both known, and is not subject to error
any kind of way, and it is equal to all things that may fall under it, and it
is authentical, of credit for itself, let men say what they will. It must rule,
and not be ruled. Therefore David, when he ordered his course of life by
this will of God, he deserved this commendation, that ' in his generation
he served the will of God.'

There be subordinate rules in their kind, as the law of nature, and the
laws of men, direct in things of this life, to do them in that manner,
according to the rule : a civil law for civil actions ; men's laws for men's
actions ; but when we do anything holily, we must have direction from

KING David's epitaph. 501

God's law, and that must put the respect of service to God upon our actions
i^ or howsoever we do things civilly by the civil law, and do things comely
by the law of nature, nature teacheth us to carry ourselves in a decorum
to give every man his due ; but it is not a service of God, except it be
directed by the rule of God. A man cannot serve God without a hi-her
rule than man can give.

_ But you will say, How shall we apply and make use of this rule in par-
ticular actions ? The word is but short, but actions are infinite. The word
of God directs me not to this or that action, and saith, You shall do this
or that in particular, but gives general rules ; how shall we come to carry
ourselves in particular actions ? Here is the skill, for a rule is not to hang
up, a measure is not to be cast aside but to be applied. A rule is a thing
in relation to a thing ruled, and a measure to things measured; and if we
do not apply it, we lose the use of it. How shall we know how to serve
tne will of God in every particular action ?

1. Besides the general word of God, we have some outward helps and
some inward. The outward helps are :

(1.) First, The ministry. That is one main outward help. And what is
the ministry for but to dig up the treasure, the mine of God ; to lay open
the will of God in particular ; to branch out, and lay open, and anatomise
the duties of such and such callings, by their ministerial gifts, which God
hath given his servants in a competent measure to give particular direc-
tons ? They have their callings for this end, ' to speak a word in season.'
They have ' the tongue of the learned,' Isa. 1. 4. God hath not set up
this calling for nought. Therefore, as we go to the learned in the law, in
doubts in that kind, so in particular doubts why do we not make use of
those that study that way, if it be in such a case as perhaps we have no
light in ourselves ? It is one end of their caUing, because perhaps our
callings are such as that we cannot study particulars ourselves ; therefore
God hath sanctified that calling, that we might have the use of it. That
is one.

(2.) Another outward help for particulars : it is communion with qood
people, those that are led with the Spirit of God ; for we must know 'that
God ofttimes lays up the practice of one man in the breast of another,
because he would knit man to man. We are ofttimes at a loss, the best of
us all, in particular directions what to do. Sometimes a meaner man, in
some things, than ourselves, can give better directions in particular than
ourselves. Shall we storm and swell at this ? No. It is God's wisdom
that one man should carry that which is for the special use of another, that
we might take counsel and ask advice one of another. ' A wise man
ordereth his doings by counsel,' saith the wise man, Prov. xii. 15 ; and
ofttimes he that takes advice of himself hath a fool to his counsellor, and
he beshrews himself that he would not take the benefit of another man's
advice. Therefore, besides the public ministry, this is one help, our Chris-
tian friends and acquaintance, and they are reserved for such a time. ' A
friend is made for adversity,' for ill times, in perplexed and doubtful cases.
This is to make use and benefit of others.

(3.) Again, The laws of men. What are the laws, if they be good, but
particular determinations of the will of God. We ought to have reverent
conceits of the laws, for they do but bring God's generals to particulars, if
they be good laws. If they have not their derivation from God's laws,
they are naught;* but, if they backf that in anything, they are nothing
* That is, ' nauglity,' = wicked. — G. f That is, ' support.' — G.

502 KING David's epitaph.

but a particular determining of the general rules in God's word, to give
every man his due, &c. Therefore in many cases we may know what
the will of God is, by the good laws of the kingdom which bind the
conscience to obedience. There is no disobedience to men's laws, but
where there is disobedience to God's laws first, which hath stablished
men's laws. '

(4.) And then, in some particulars, when it doth not appear what we
should do, the example of good 2:>eople, of the wisest and best in the rank and
place uhere ice live, till we know the contrary. The best way is to rest in
their judgment, to follow the advice of others, the direction of friends, or
the laws and customs, and not to be refractory and opposite, except there
be reason to the contrary. For man's spirit is a divine thing. It must
alway be led with some reason, but with this reservation, a man may keep
to others till it appear otherwise, till he see other light and direction to
take this course. This is the disposition that should be in every peaceable
man. These be some outward helps to know the will of God in particular
actions.

2. The inward helps to know what God's will in 2J(i>'tic2dar is, together
with the word of God unfolded.

(1.) The Sjnrit of God, which is as a voice behind us, saying, ' This is
the way, walk in it,' Isa. xxx. 21. Wherefore serves the blessed Spirit but
to be a counsellor ? as Isa. ix. 7. Christ, he is the blessed counsellor.
How comes he to be so ? Not immediately by himself, but by his Spirit.
All things he doth to his church is by his Spirit. He fills his church with
his Spirit. Now the children of God, having this Spirit of counsel to advise
them in particulars, they are ' led with the Spirit.' This is one inward
help, and a main one. And surely, if we would give way to the blessed
guidance of God's Spirit, and not grieve, and quench, and resist the Spirit,
the Spirit of God would be ready to direct us upon all occasions. We
should be guided in particular actions with a better Spirit than our own.
And this Spirit we may have by prayer. God will give the Spirit to them
that beg him, Luke xi. 13.

(2.) Then another inward help is particular grace, which God gives to
his children. Particular prudence to speak words and to do actions in
season, that everything may be beautiful in its time. There is sapience,
wisdom, and prudence : ' I Wisdorp dwell with prudence,' Prov. viii. 12.
It is the wisdom of a man to understand his way, what to do in particular,
or what not to do. It is prudence or discretion to discern of differences.
Now that grace of God is in some measure given to all his children. He
makes them wise to understand their own way. They are not so wise,
perhaps, for other things. It is not their way. God lets some men go
with a less measure of discretion to heaven than others ; because he hath
less work for them to do. But every man hath as much as will bring him
to heaven. The less he hath himself, the more he shall have of others.
Some men are excellent in gifts of wisdom. They can tell you generals
out of the book of God excellent well. But come to directions in par-
ticular, and you shall have meaner men of better discretion than they.
Either we have it ourselves, or else God will associate us, and by his provi-
dence cast us upon other acquaintance that have a greater measure of this
grace that he will have us acquainted with. God gives every one of his a
spirit to discern what to speak, how to advise, how to comfoi-t, what to do.
And the meanest Christian is more in this, for religious actions, than the
greatest man in the world that hath not the Spirit of God ; for he can tell

KING David's epitaph.

503

in particular how to boar afflictions, and how to enjoy prosperity; because
the Spirit directs him what to do, t^ j >

(3.) Again, God hath put into every man a conscience. Wherefore serves
conscience, but especially to direct in particulars. There is a faculty of
the soul that we call a treasury, a preserving faculty, that is to lay up
general rules out of the word of God, and directions out of good books
and from the counsel of other men. It is a faculty to treasure up rules'
Therefore it hath the name of preserving. But there is a conscience under
this. That being sanctified by the Spirit of God, and being directed in
general by the word of God, it directs in particular. Conscience tells us.
This m particular you ought to do ; this you have done ; in this particular
you have done well, in this you have done ill. So conscience is put in us
to check or direct us in particular. It is God's vicar in every man
together with the Spirit. Conscience, together with the Spirit, is a great
help to know God's will in particulars. If men would not be too bold with
conscience, conscience, together with God's Spirit, would be faithful to
them. Conscience may say, as Reuben said to his brethren when they
were in misery, 'Did not I tell you, do no hurt to the lad?' Gen.
xlii. 21 ; deal not so hardly with Joseph as to cast him into the pit. So
many men do many things amiss. Conscience may say. Did not I tell you
this before ? it was naught,* and yet you would needs do it. Yes, certainly;
and when conscience is not hearkened unto as a director, it will scourge as
a judge. It hath many oflices, and it is good to keep this conscience in
its office ; to let conscience do its full duty, let conscience direct us to the
full. Certainly, if we would hearken to this vicegerent in our hearts, this
little god that God hath placed there in mercy to guide our lives in par-
ticular, it would be better with us than it is. We should end our days
with more comfort, and give a better reckoning than we can.

(4.) Again, Experience may be added as another help. Experience is a
great help in particulars, for indeed generals are raised out of experiments!
in particular. Thereforej those that are wise politicians, statesmen, they
are not so out of books altogether, but men of experience that can say,
such a case hath been so at such a time. So that out of observation and
particular experience they are able to say, upon the like case, it should be
now at this time thus and thus. If therefore we would treasure up
experience, it would be a good help to know what is to be done in particu-
lars ; to consider how it hath been in former time, and consider the
experience of others. You see then what the rule of our service is, God's
will ; with these helps subordinate to it, how to direct ourselves in par-
ticular actions to serve the will of God. So much for that point.
' He served.'

Now I come to the act of service. God must be served according to his
own will. We must search and try what is the good, and holy, and accept-
able will of God, Rom. xii. 2. I have shewed how we may search in par-
ticular what the good and acceptable will of God is. Now when this is
discovered, the next thing is to ' serve ' God in the knowledge of his will ;
for all the blessings are annexed to service, and not to knowledge. * If ye
know this will.' Is there all ? No. * Happy are ye if 5'e do it,' John
xiii. 17. If we know the rule and do it, we are happy. What if we do it
not ? ' He that knows his master's will, and doth it not, shall be beaten
with many stripes,' Luke xii. 47. It will but aggravate our damnation, to
know the rule, to have directions what to do, and not to do them. Then
* That is, ' naughty,' = wicked. — G. f That is, ' experiences.' — G.

504 KING David's epitaph.

the rule that we have hath another use. If we use it not for direction in
what we do, it will he brought against us at the day of judgment, as a
direction for God to damn us by : This you knew ; this counsel you had ;
these motions of the Spirit you had ; this, conscience told you ; this, the
ministry and your friends told you. Notwithstanding, you crossed and
thwarted all. When it is not a direction for us to obedience, it will be a
direction for God to give sentence. Therefore let us make conscience first
to know the will of God, which is the rule of all our actions, by all the
means we can, and then to give ' service to it.' David served the will of
God. His life was not unfruitfully and wickedly spent ; but ' he served '
the counsel of God that had planted and placed him there in the world for
that purpose. Why hath God planted us here in the paradise of the
church ? That we should not be barren trees, or bring forth ill fruit ; but
that we should ' serve' him, and be fruitful in our places.

This word ' service ' is a harsh word, and such a thing as proud spirits
could never digest. Why did the devils fall ? They would be in a state
independent, and not under others ; they would have their own courses ;
and therefore the Scripture saith, ' They kept not their own standing,'
Jude 6. God set them in one course, and they swelled and would not
keep it. The particular is not set down in Scripture, but ' they kept not
their own standing.' Neither the devil, who is a proud creature, nor men
led with the spirit of the devil, can endure service. Every man would be
a god to himself, to be guided by his own lewd will and lusts ; and God
knows, they are blind guides, and we shall know it to our cost if we have
not a better guide. When the will of God is revealed, therefore, we must
have a care to serve it.

Now, to ' serve,' implies two things especially : an action, and a refer-
ence of that action to the will of another. That is service, as I said before,
to do a thing, and to do in obedience. For if a man do never so many
things, if it be not in obedience to the will of another, it is no ' service.'
He serves himself. So to ' serve' God is when we know the will of God,
to do accordingly, and to do it because it is the will of God. Then it is
service ; or else it is a work indeed done, but no service or obedience.

All obedience is with looking to the will and pleasure of another, that
hath authority to direct us; and then we ' serve' the revealed will of God,
when the whole inward and outward man is fashioned and framed to that ;
when there is a measuring of both together, as when we obey the direc-
tions ; when we tremble at the threatenings ; when we imitate the examples
of holy writ ; when we are raised up with the comforts ; when answerable
to every divine truth there is an answerable disposition of soul ; when there
is a sweet harmony between God's truth and our inward and outward man.
Rom. vi. 17, ' We must be cast into the mould of the word.' As a thing
when it is moulded in another frame, it carries the print of the frame or
mould, so we 'serve' the will and word of God when we are moulded
answerable to that will.

Now, more particularly, this ' service ' of the will of God, it is either
immediate, inward ' service' of the will of God, or outward service.

(1.) Inivard service is the obedience of the first commandment, when
upon the knowledge of God we set him up in our souls, and cleave to him
in our afiections of trust, and joy, and love, and delight, to give him the
supremacy of all these. Then we serve him with inward worship and
service. And this indeed is to set the crown upon God's head, and to
make him king and God in our hearts. He must have the prime of our

KING David's epitaph. • 505

inward service. When we love God above all, and fear him above all, and
delight in him above all, and cleave to him when all things else fail us,
this is the immediate ' service' of God in our hearts, when we give God his
own in our hearts. Hence comes all other ' service' whatsoever, or else it
is but the eye-service, that is not enlivened with the inward worship
of God.

(2.) Now, besides this inward, there is a ' service' of God that comes
from this imvard service, which is of the outicard man; that is, when we pray
to God, and that requires our words, when we praise God in thanksgiving,
when we come to hear the word and to receive the sacrament. And so all
outward holy actions are the 'service' of God, and are drawn from the
inward immediate worship of God that I spake of before.

(3.) Besides these (which come more immediately from a sanctified
spirit), there is a service of God that is the obedience of the second table,
when we do good to men with an eye to serve God> as we say. There is
an ehcit, proper service of God, and a commanded service of God, cidtus
imperatus. All duties to men are a ' service ' of God, when we do them
as commanded of God, as because I love God, therefore I honour my
parents, and magistrates ; and therefore I will not commit adultery : as
Joseph, ' Shall I do this, and offend God' ? Gen. xxxiv. 9. So the Scrip-
ture allegeth reasons out of the first table, when we are tempted to sins
against the second table ; and then the duties of the second table are a
worship and ' service ' of God, when they are commanded by the first.
And this is the difference between a mere formal man and a Christian in
his outward performances. A civil man is altogether for the second table,
but he hath not his rise from the first. He gives every man his due, &c.,
but it is not in obedience to God, because God hath commanded him to do
it ; but because he sees it is a deformed thing to be unjust. Out of the
light of nature he condemns the sin, but not out of religious respects. It
is not a service of God all this while. Ay, but when it is from love to
God, when that great command, ' Thou shalt love God above all,' sets him
upon this, then all the duties he performs to man are a service of the will
of God, for God commands them. Even the basest works are a service of
God when they are done in obedience to God, as Saint Paul tells them in
Col. iii. 22, and Eph. vi. 5, the poor servant ' serves the Lord Christ.'
When a poor servant is at his work, emploj-ed in the business of man,
poor, common things, yet he serves the Lord all the while. For God
hath set them that calling, and he doth the second table in obedience to
the first ; and he serves men, those that are his governors, with an eye to
the great Governor and Master that is above all, that will reward them for
their poor service, however their master reward them, Eph. vi. 8. This
is to serve the will of God then ; to yield to him the immediate service of
the soul, and the outward expressions of it ; and to go through all other
duties as they spring from the first. Then we are moulded, as I said
before, answerable to the word of God.

To apply this to our blessed man David, and then to make use of it to
ourselves.

Thus did David serve the will of God in his time ; for you may see what
he was. He is anatomised and laid open to our eyes in the Psalms. You
may see his care of ' serving' God in his own writings. See how he
cleaved to God in his affections in Ps. xviii. 30, seq., how he loved God,
and joyed in God, and in the word of God above all things in the world.
He esteemed the light of ' God's countenance more than corn, or wine, or

50G

KING DAVID S EPITAPH.

oil,' Ps. iv. 7. I give but a toucLi, to shew how this description is true of
this blessed man, ' that he served the will of God.'

' And for the expression of it in praise and prayer, he was ' a man after
God's own heart ; ' especially in this, he was ready upon all occasions to
bless and praise God. He kept his communion with God, as we see ;
though he were a king, yet his main care was to * serve ' God, as we see
in Ps. i. 2, ' He meditated in the word of God day and night.' What
time had he to rule his kingdom then? The meaning is, that all the spare
time that he had it was to think of God ; to look to the rule, the word of
God, how to guide his life.

And for his outward calling. (There is a double calling wherein we
* serve ' God as Christians, our general and our particular calling, wherein
we are to deal with men.) What an excellent man was he ! ' He served
the will of God,' as a governor of a family. We see in Ps. ci. 2, how he
carried himself in the midst of his house to all his servants. A liar should
not abide in his house. You have a direction there how to guide jour
families. You see how he served the will of God as a govei-nor. Yet
there was a fault to him in that respect, he was too indulgent to Absalom
and Adoniah. A man may be a good man, and yet be to blame in some
particulars ; but when his heart is right, God pardons the rest.

You see how he carried himself as a king. He was an excellent king,
the delight of Israel. He carried himself every way as a king should do.
He tempered mercy and judgment together : ' I will sing of mercy and
judgment,' Ps. ci. 1. So he did in his whole carriage sweetly temper
mercy and justice ; he dispensed these two. And as a king must not only
' serve' God, so his care was to establish the worship of God, as you find
in the story. David, when he saw all in peace and quiet, then he begins
to take care for the ark, 2 Sam. vii. 2 : ' I dwell in a house of cedar ; but
the ark of the Lord remains under curtains.' Therefore he took a course
for that. So governors should do, when God hath settled them in their
government quietly, to begin to think of God's house ; for they rule not
well, they ' serve not the will of God,' except, besides their own service,
they call others to serve him. A magistrate must be the keeper of both
tables himself, and cause others to do it ; he must lay down his crown
at the feet of Christ, as it is in Isaiah xlix. 7. Thus David was a
nursing father to the church of God ; he served God in his particular
calling.

Now, to make use of another division, the will of God it is either in
things to be done or to be suffered ; and obedience answerable to that is
either active or passive ; as David ' served' God in doing, so he yielded
obedience, and ' served the will of God' in his passive obedience ; wherein
he did deny himself exceedingly, as much as ever man did, next to Christ.
You see how he denied himself in his carriage toward Saul, 1 Sam. xxlv. : in
matter of revenge, how he overcame himself, because he knew that revenge
was God's, and that God was his, and therefore would right him well
enough. And in Shimei, ' God hath bid him rail.' He would not revenge.
And other notable examples we have, how he submitted to God's will, as
in 1 Sam. xxx. 6, when he was in extremity, he encouraged himself in the
Lord his God. There he stayed himself in extremity ; and in 2 Sam. xv. 25,
there is a notable place how he submitted himself to God. ' The king
said. Carry back the ark of God : if I have found favour in the eyes of God,
he will bring me again ; but if God say thus, I have no delight in him,
behold here I am, let him do as seems good to him.' Here was a resigna-

KING DAVID S EPITAPH. 507

tion of himself to the will of himself =:= in serving of him. So in Ps. xxxix. 1,
' 1 held my tongue, Lord, hecause thou didst it.' Thus you see how he
' served the will of God, in the inward service of God, and in the outward
to God and man; m both callings, as a good man, and a good governor,
m his family ; every way he « served' the will of God.

Use And wherefore is all this ? Here is a pattern for us that wo should
serve the will of God : to serve the will of God immediately, to labour to bring
our hearts to trust in him ; to fear him above all ; to delight in him above all ;
and to express it in our outward service of him, and in doing duties to men
irom inward respect to God ; in conscience of our duty, to serve God when
we serve men : to carry ourselves in our general calling, as Christians, and in
our particular place, not only to be good men, but good in our callings ; good
students, good lawyers, &c. Let us shew our religion there, as David did.
ihis is to serve the will of God. That is not religion that is left behind
m the church : as Lactantius saith, that is no religion that we leave behind
when we come to the church door (/). But that is religion when we learn
our duty here, and carry it in our breasts to practise it every day in the
week ; when we shew it in our places. That is the service of God. There-
fore let this holy man be an example to us. Wherefore are these particular
things recorded of him in the Scriptures, but that we should transform our-
selves to this blessed pattern.

The whole hfe of a Christian we see is a service of God. There is
nothing that we do but it may be a ' service' of God. No. Not our par-
ticular recreations, if we use them as we should ; as whettings to be fitter
for our callings, and enjoy them as liberties, with thankfulness to God, that
allows us these liberties to refresh ourselves. There is no passage of a
man's life, but it may have the respect of a service of God. It is not the
matter or stuff, but the stamp, that makes the coin ; so it is not the work,
but the stamp, that makes it ' a service,' when we do it with an eye to God.
Let the king set a stamp but upon brass, upon a token, yet it will go for
current if it have the king's authority and stamp upon it. Let it be but
an action of our callings, suppose to give counsel in our studies or pleading
of the law, &c., if it have God's stamp upon it ; if there be prayer upon it
to bless it, and it be done in obedience to God, and with justice ; not
against the rules of piety and charity, and as far as it may displease God,
to baulk and avoid all temptations in our callings out of rehgious respects,
it is a ' service' of God. Our whole life, not only in the" church, but in
our particular places, may be a * service of God;' as it is said here, ' David
served God.'

Oh, if we could think of this wheresoever we are, we would take no
liberty to offend God in anything. We would not thrust religion into a
corner, into a narrow room, and limit it to some days, and times, and
actions, and places, and then take liberty to defraud and dissemble, to
abuse ourselves this way and that way. Is this to serve God ? To ' serve'
God is to carry ourselves as the children of God wheresoever we are : so
that our whole life is a service of God.

A Christian is no libertine, no man of freedom. He is a servant. Indeed,
we have changed our master. We are set at liberty from the slavery of
sin and Satan ; but it is not that we should do nothing, to be Beiials
without yoke ; but it is to serve God. We are taken from the service of
Satan to be the Lord's freemen ; and indeed it is to that end. We are

* Qu. 'God"?— Ed.

508

KING DAVID S EPITAPH.

delivered that we might serve God, Luke i. 74. Therefore all the actions
of our Hfe should be a ' service' to God.

Quest. To make this a little clearer : How can this be, will some man
think, that every common action should be a service of God ?

Ans. I will make it clear by an instance. The beasts and other
creatures and we have common actions, such as we do in common, as to
eat, and to drink, and to move. The beast doth this, and man doth it.
When a man doth them, they are reasonable actions, because they are
guided with reason, and moderated by reason ; but when the beast doth
them, they are the actions of a beast, because he hath no better faculty to
guide him. So common actions, they are not a service of God, as they
corne from common men, that have not grace and the Spirit of God in
their hearts ; they are mere buying and selling, and going about the actions
of their callings, as the actions, of a beast are the actions of a beast. But
let a Christian come to do them, he hath a higher life and a higher spirit
that makes them spiritual actions that are common in themselves. He
raiseth them to a higher order and rank. Therefore a Christian ' serveth
God.' In all that he doth he hath an eye to God : that which another
man doth with no eye to God, but merely in civil respects. We say of
policy, it is an ancient observation, which is good and very fit. The know-
ledge of a commonwealth, it is a building knowledge, a commanding
knowledge ; for though a statesman doth not build, he doth not buy and
sell and commerce ; but he useth all other trades for the good of the state.
It is a knowledge commanding all other inferior arts and trades, in a com-
monwealth, to the last end. They should all be serviceable to the com-
monwealth, and if they be not, away with them. So religion, and the
knowledge of divine things, it is a commanding knowledge ; it commands
all other services in our callings, &c. It doth not teach a man what he
shall do in particular in bis calling ; but it teacheth him how to direct that
calling to ' serve God,' to be advantageous and helpful to his general call-
ing ; to further him to heaven, to make everything reductive to his last
end, which he sets before him ; that is, to honour and serve God in all
things, to whom he desires to approve himself in Hfe and death. He hath
a principle, the Holy Ghost in him, and he labours to reduce everything to
the main end. Oh that we were in this temper !

And as we must labour to imitate holy David in doing, so likewise in
suffering. We must be careful that nothing of God's displease us, as we
are careful, for ourselves, that nothing of ours displease God. In doing,
we ought to be careful that nothing of ours displease God ; in suffering,
that nothing of God's dealing displease us ; for there is rebellion in both,
in passive obedience as well as active. There is rebellion when we murmur
and will not be as God will have us, as if we were wiser than he, to ap-
point our own condition. Whereas we should resign ourselves, as David,
* Here I am ; let the Lord do as it pleaseth him ;' and as they said in the
Acts, xxi. 14, * The will of the Lord be done ;' and as we pray in the Lord's
prayer, ' Thy will be done,' insinuating not our own. We must be content
to stoop in our sufferings obediently to God, because he is ' righteous in
all his ways, and holy in all his works,' Ps. cxlv. 17, in all the courses
he takes with us. We should be ready to justify God in all things.

Now, how did he ' serve God,' for the manner of his service ? The
manner of his service was as it should be, and so he was exemplary to us
all in that. Amongst others, his service was,

1. First, Universal, to God and to men every way.

KING David's epitaph.

509

2 Secondly, It was xuufonn. Ho was good in all conditions, a good
shepherd, a good king, he ;Yas good in his family, &c. So the service of
the children and servants of God, it must be uniform in all estates, 'to
know how to want, and how to abound,' &c.,

3. And then his service was cheerful. We see how oft he rouseth up
himself in the Psalms : ' Awake ; my harp and lute,' &c.,

4. _ And lastly, His service was sincere. It was to God! You may know
his sincerity by this: -^

(1.) He cared not for scoffinr/s ; he practised duties that were scorned at
Ihat IS an evidence of sincerity, when in ill times the children of God
stand to God and religion. When Michal mocked him, saith he, ' I wiU
be yet more vile for God,' 2 Sam. vi. 22. When God may have glory
and religion defence, for men to stand for God in ill times, it is a si^^n of
sincerity. An hypocrite will never do so. David did at all times, ' in his
generation.

(2.) And then it was a sign of sincerity, that he ivoiiU appeal to God
iry me. Lord, if there be any way of wickedness in me,' Ps. cxxxix 23
When a soul can go to God, and say, Lord, if there be anyway of wicked-
ness in me, any secret lurking corruption in me, that may endanger the
state of my soul, that I know not of, discover it to me : that is a si^m that
a man is m league with no sin, but his service is sincere. °

(3.) A man that is not sincere hath no comfort. So much sincerity so
much comfort. If a man do not things to God in sincerity, all is lost to
God. A man may have commendations of the world, as the Pharisees had
which IS nothing but a kind of curse : ' You have your reward,' Mat. vi 2 •
that IS, you have it here, and shall lose it hereafter. So much concernin<^
the life of David, in those words, ' David in his generation served the
counsel or will of God.' Now, to make a perfect discourse of it, we will
speak something of his end.

* He fell asleep, and was gathered to his fathers, and saw corruption.'

' He fell asleep,' that is, he died ; for sleep, in Scripture, it is a middle
phrase, appliable to good and bad ; for wicked men, in Scripture, are said
to sleep, and good men are said to 'sleep. Only the difference is, as
the persons are ; for the sleep of wicked men it is like the sleep of a male-
factor before his execution, that is ofttimes tripped in his sleep ; or like
the sleep of a man in sickness, or in a mad fit. His sleep doth but con-
coct the malignant humour, and after he wakes, he rageth three times more
than he did before. So the sleep, the death of a carnal, wicked man, it is
but a preparation to his execution ; it is but the sleep of a distempered
man that wakes with more horror, and terror, and rage, than ever before.
Indeed,_ properly the death only of the godly is a sleep. But to observe
something first briefly in general.

Ohs. 1. We see here is a time of dying as well as a time of living.

There is a time to serve God in living, and there is a time to yield our
souls to him, as well as a time to serve God in doing the actions and func-
tions of this life.

Use 1. Which would teach us this, not to fix our thoughts too rnuch on
life. As there is a time for all things to the living, so there is a time to
cease to live ; and therefore to use the world with moderation, ' as though
we used it not, knowing that the fashion of the world passeth away,' 1 Cor.
vii. 81. It should teach us to serve God as well in living as in dying.

Use 2. And it should teach us to do all the good we can while we have

510 KING David's epitaph.

time. David served God while he lived, and he served God in dying ;
because his death was in obedience. But, as I said before, after "death
properly there is no service of God, but a receiving of wages. Therefore
let us serve God while we live, while we have time, because there is a
time * when night will come,' the night of sickness and of death, ' and then
no man can work,' John ix, 4, if he would never so fain.

' He fell asleep.' Why did he not die before ? He served God a great
while ; he did not die when he was first a good man.

Obs. 2. God icill have his children serve out their generation.

(1.) They must serve out their time. As soon as ever we believe we have
right to heaven, but God will have us bear the burden of the day awhile,
to hrincf others to heaven ivith us, to go before others in the example of a
godly life, to gain as many as we can.

(2.) To try the trutli of our graces before we come to heaven, whether they
be true or no, that they may be true, tried graces.

(3.) And he will have us perfect before we come to so holy a place. He
will have us ' grow in grace,' as Ahasuerus his wives were to be perfumed
and prepared before they came to him. It is a holy place that we hope
for, a holy condition ; therefore he will have us by little and little be fitted
by the Spirit of God. Many such reasons there be why God in heavenly
wisdom will have us go on here a time before we come to heaven, though
as soon as we believe we are in the state of salvation ; as Christ said to
Zaccheus, ' Tliis day is salvation come to thine house,' Luke xix. 9.

Use. Therefore let us not repine that God will have us live. Indeed, as
soon as a Christian hath faith, he hath life in patience and death in desire ;
for he is impatient to want his crown. Oh, but here is the time of ser-
vice ; and when he considers the eternity of the reward he shall have
after, he will be glad to serve God, and he will be ashamed that he can do
it no more. When he knows he shall have an ' eternal weight of glory,'
2 Cor. iv. 17, for a little service, then he will deny his lusts and pleasures
to serve God in the place he lives in, whether he be magistrate or minister
whatsoever, to undergo the burden of a little service.

Again, In that it is said here, * then he fell asleep,' not before, till he
had served the counsel of God.

Obs. 3. God hath allotted a man a time.

He hath set him a glass that must be run, he hath given him a part to
act, and he cannot be taken away till that be done. He can never fell
asleep till he have served the counsel of God. As it is said in the gospel
concerning our Saviour Christ, ' his hour was not yet come,' John vii. 30.
They have laid wait for him, but his hour was not come. So there may
be many snares laid for the children of God by Satan and his instruments,
but till their hour be come, all the devils in hell, nor all the devil's instru-
ments on earth, cannot shorten a man's life one minute of an hour ; for
he shall fall asleep when he hath served the counsel of God, when he hath
done all that God will have him to do.

Use. Therefore it is ground of resolution, let tis go on in our places and
callings, xmdauntedly and tvisely too ; not to tempt God, to rush into dan-
gers ; but, I mean, without base fear and distrust ; for we must serve God
to-day and to-morrow, and then we shall be sanctified. We must serve
God the appointed time that he will have us to live here ; and then we shall
* fall asleep,' and not before. No creature hath power over the life of man
to shorten his days.

Obs. 4. The next thing we will observe from the nature of sleep is, that

KING DAVID'a EPITAPH. 511

The death of the r/odh/ is a sleep, in respect of refreshing.

Sleep doth refresh and repair, and as it were recreate and make a man
anew. Sleep and rest it is the blessed ordinance of God, it is an excellent
thing to repair men ; so after death nature shall be repaired better, we
shall rise fresher; as it is Ps. xvii. 15, 'When I arise, I shall be satis-
fied with thine image.' We shall rise refreshed, better than we lay down.
So that as we go to bed then, to sleep, to cut off all cares, so when we
rest in death, all cares, and fears, and terrors, all annoyances, are cut off.

(1.) 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord : they rest from their
labours,' Rev. xiv. 13 ; insinuating that there is no rest before. For to a
man that knows that this world is a workhouse, and his life a sei'vice to
God, he thinks of no rest till he be in his grave. So death it is a sleep
in regard of that rest. We rest from the labour of sin, we rest from the
wearisome labour of the body ; from the labour of afflictions and oppres-
sions, from the molestations of other men among whom we live. Every
way this life is tedious, and death rest.

(2.) Again, It is in this respect a sleep ; because a man goes to bed ivilh
assured hope of rising again, and therefore he goes quietly. Though it be
a state of darkness for the time, all the senses are bound up, yet he knows
that in God's ordinary providence he shall rise again. Therefore men not
only quietly, but cheerfully, go to bed. So there is greater ground to know
that we shall rise again out of our graves, than that we should rise out of
our beds ; for many men's beds have been their graves, in some sort ; I
mean, they have died in their beds. But for the resurrection, we have the
word of Almighty God, that is a God of his word, that we shall rise a^ain;
and we have it in the pledge of our Saviour's resurrection. There is no
doubt of that.

Therefore when we die, if we have faith, we should make no more of
death than men do to go to bed ; hoping undoubtedly of an assured and
joyful resurrection. The want of faith in that kind makes us backward to
this. You see in what respect death is said to be a ' sleep.' To speak
only of those references and relations that are most pertinent between
sleep and death.

(3.) David ' fell asleep,' and very willingly ; for he had lived a painful
life ; he served God both as a private man, as a shepherd, and as a king ;
Eccles. V. 12, * To a labouring man sleep is sweet ;' so to a man that hath
served God carefully in his calling, and kept a good conscience, death is
very sweet. We see children that have been playing all day, they are loath
to go to bed ; but to a man that hath wrought all day, ' sleep is sweet,' as
wise Solomon saith, * to a labouring man.'

Use. Would we, then, have death as a sweet rest ? Let us do as David did ;
that is, be painful,* and laborious in our particular place and in our general
calling ; let us be faithful in them to keep a good conscience, and set all in
order as much as we can while we live ; to leave no seeds of debate when
we are gone. Some men die carelessly this way in disposing the good
things that God hath given them. They lay a foundation of perpetual
jarring afterwai'd ; and so their death is scarcely a * sleep and rest.' They
cannot but be disquieted when they think how they leave things, because
they were not wise beforehand. David settled Solomon in his throne, and
set all things right before he died ; and that made him die, not only in rest
but in honour ; in 1 Chron. xxix. 28, ' David died in a good old age, full of
riches and honour.'

* That is, ' pains-taking.' — G.

512 KING David's epitaph.

And let us labour to get assurance of a change for the better. David
his flesh rested in hope, because he believed in Christ, that Christ's body
should see no corruption, Ps. xvi. 10. So if we would have death sweet as a
sleep, let us labour to get assurance by faith in Christ, and so our flesh
may rest in hope, that as Christ raised his own flesh, so he will raise ours.
Good Simeon, when he had seen Christ once, * Lord, now let thy servant
depart in peace,' &c., Luke ii. 29. So after we have gotten a sight of
Christ to be our Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer, and have interest in him,
' Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace.' So much for the term seep.

It is added besides, that

* He was gathered to his fathers.'

' He was gathered to his fathers ' both in regard of his body, and in
regard of his soul ; for his body went to the house of the dead, the grave,
and his soul went to his fathers, to heaven. As I said before of sleep, so
of this. It is a phrase of Scripture that must be understood as the persons
are. When a man dies, his body goes to the place or house of all men, the
house of darkness, the grave ; but for his soul, that goes as the man is, to
his fathers, to hell, if he be naught ; to the souls of just and perfect men,
as the apostle speaks, if he have lived a gracious and a good life ; and so it
must be understood here, because he speaks of a blessed man.

' He was put to his fathers.' He means not to his immediate fathers,
but all believing men before him that were the children of Abraham. His
soul went to them ; his body to the first mother, the earth, out of which it
was taken. So the general is nothing but this, that

Obs. 5. When ice die ive are j^ut to our fathers.

Therefore this should moderate our fear of death, and our grief for the
departure of others. Why ? We are not lost when we die. The soul and
body is taken asunder, it is taken in pieces, but both remain still. The
body goes to the earth from whence it was taken, and the soul goes to God
that gave it. And for our comfort, we go to those that we knew before,
many of them ; to our fathers, not to strangers. Especially in respect of
our souls we go to our fathers, to our next forefathers and to our old
fathers : to Abraham, Isaac, to Jacob, to David, to blessed Saint Paul and
Peter, and all the blessed men that died in the faith. And when we are
dead, we go to those that are more perfect than those that we leave behind
us. This should moderate our grief. Oh, I leave my friends behind me,
my father, and mother, and children ! It is to go to better, to greater,
and those that love thee better. Thou goest to greater, for they are in
their pitch ; they have attained their end, they are in heaven ; and to better,
they are refined from those corruptions that men here are subject unto,
and then their love is perfect likewise. Therefore going to our fathers and
not to strangers, to those that are better and greater, and love us more
perfectly, why should we think much to die ? They will be ready to enter-
tain us. Oh the welcome that souls find in heaven ! and at the day of the
resurrection the sweet embracings, when all the blessed souls that have
been from Adam to the last man shall meet together ! Seeing therefore we
go to our fathers, it should rather make us cheerful. Here, whom do we
live with ? Take them at the best, our friends. Men, subject to jealousies
and weaknesses. Our jealousy makes us suspect them, and their weakness
makes us think the meaner of them. So our love is not perfect, nor our
graces are not perfect. Therefore we cannot have perfect love and con-
tentment while we are here. But in heaven there shall be no jealousy,

KING DAYID S EPITAPH.

513

nor fear, nor imperfection, which is the grouncT of jealousy. We shall
perfectly love them because they shall be perfectly good ; and they shall
perfectly love us because we shall be perfectly good ; and one shall stand
admiring the graces of God in another, and that will maintain a per-
petuity of love. Therefore it is want of faith that makes us unwilling
to yield our souls unto God at the point of death. It is a going to our
fathers.

But then we must take heed what fathers we imitate here, Heb. xiii. 7.
Take heed who are our patterns while we live ; for if we do not imitate them
here, we cannot live with them in heaven when we are dead. Therefore it
is a very necessary item in Heb. xiii. 7, ' Look to them that rule over yon,
that speak the word ; whose faith follow, considering the end of their labour.'
Let us look before what kind of men those have been that we desire to live
with in heaven, and mark the end of their conversation ; for such as we
delight in, and frame our carriage to here, such we shall live with hereafter.
We must not think to live with Nero, and die with Paul ; to live Epicures,
and die Christians ; to live dissembling and falsely in our places, and to die
comfortably, and to go to the blessed souls at the hour of death, and at the
resurrection. No. God will gather our souls with wicked men, if we
fashion our carriage to wicked men. Such as we delight in, and live with,
and set as patterns before us, with such we shall live for ever hereafter.
' He was gathered to his fathers.'

One sign of a man that shall be gathered to beheving fathers, to his good
forefathers, besides imitation, is this, to delight in the congregations of just
men here. A man may know he shall go to the congregation of perfect
souls in heaven, if he delight in the congregations of God's saints here ;
for surely he that hath a confidence to be in the proper heaven, heaven
that is so blessed, he will have a care while he lives, as much as he can,
to be and delight in the heaven upon earth. Now the chief heaven upon
earth is the church of God. ' how amiable is thy dwelling-place, Lord,'
Ps. Ixxxiv. 1, where many souls meet together to join in speaking to God,
and in hearing God speak to them. Those therefore that delight not in
the congregations, that delight not in the service of God, what hope have
they to be gathered to the congregation of the faithful when they are gone.
So much for that, ' He was gathered to his fathers.'

* And he saw corruption.'

It is an Hebraism for ' he felt corruption,' ' he had experience of cor-
ruption.' All other senses are attributed to sight. That being the prin-
cipal of all the senses, they have their term from it, because sight is the
most excellent, the most capacious and quick sense. Therefore, I say, the
actions of all the other senses are attributed to it, as we say, see how he
speaks, and so here, ' he saw corruption,' that is, he had experience of it;
because sight is a convincing sense. He could not properly see when he
was dead : but the meaning is, he had experience of ' corruption.' The
truth is this, in a word, that,

Ohs. 6. The best and greatest men in the ivodd, ivhen they are gone, they are
subject to corruption.

David was a king and a prophet, ' a man after God's own heart.' Yet
this could not keep David's body from corruption.

Reason 1. The reason is, ice are but dead men here. This is not the life
that Christ hath purchased for us. We are going to death. Our natural Hfe
is but cursus ad mortem, a continual going to death. We are alive now, but,

VOL. VI. K k

614 KING DA\^D'S EPITAPH.

alas ! our life is nothing but a continual dying ; every day cuts off a part of
our life. It is a statute that all must die.

Reason 2. And it is our perfection to die. We cannot otherwise see God
and enjoy our crown. Death indeed is nothing but misery. But when we
die we go to live. The best must * see corruption.'

Use 1. Therefore this should be an argument to support the soul ; when
we think of the rottenness in the grave, and of that place, and time of
horror, when we shall be no more here upon earth. It is no otherwise with
us than it hath been with the best in the world. They all saw ' corrup-
tion' in their time.

Use 2. Again, considering we have but con-uptible bodies here, bodies
that must see corruption; let us take care for the better j^art. He is a mad-
man, that having two houses, one free-hold, the other a rotten tenement,
ready to fall about his ears, that shall take delight in that and neglect his
own inheritance, which is a goodly thing. It is for want of wit ; and it is
as much want of grace, when we, having a double life, the life of grace,
that ends in glory, the life of the soul, the life of God, as St Paul saith ;
and then the life of the body, which is communicated from the soul to the
body, which is corruptible ; — our bodies are but ' tabernacles of clay, whose
foundation is in the dust,' — for us to take care of this vile body, as the
apostle calls it, Philip, iii. 21, ' Who shall change our vile body, and make
it like to his glorious body, according to his mighty power ;' to take care of
this vile body and to neglect our precious souls. It is the care of most
(such is the carnal breeding of men, and they follow those that bred them
in this brutishness, as if they had no souls ; as if there were no life after
this), their care is, ' what they shall eat, and what they shall drink, and
put on,' Mat. vi. 25 ; what to commend themselves by in the outward man
to the view of others ; all their care is for their outward man. Alas ! what
is it but a corruptible vile body ? It is but the case of the soul. They
forget the jewel and look all to the casket, which is a base body, take it at
the best while we are here.

Use 3. And take heed we be not ensnared with the bodies of others. This
is the ' corruption' of men, to gaze in this kind. You see wise Solomon
and others were much troubled with temptations in this kind. Consider
that body that thou doatest on now, and which is made by the devil a
snare to thee, what will it be ere long ? So noisome that thou wilt not
endure the presence of it. It is but a flower, and it is fading, fresh in the
morning and dead at night. All flesh is but grass. It is a corruptible
body. If thou wilt needs love, be acquainted with such as have excellent
spirits that shall live eternally. Oh, there is an object of love indeed !
That is the true love and acquaintance that is spiritual. Many things may
be lovely in the outward person, but see that there be a heavenly spirit,
that is mounting up, that savours of good things ; a spirit that hath life
begun in it, that shall be for ever happy in heaven. Unless there be this,
there cannot be a fit ground for the love of any wise man.

To end all, you see here a short story of a good life and a blessed death.
Let us make this blessed man of God exemplary to us in both. Let our
whole life be nothing but a service of God, and let us consider the genera-
tion wherein we are to take and do all the good we can in our time. And
then consider what death will be. When we come to die, it will be a sweet
sleep to us, and our resurrection will be a refreshing. ' Our flesh shall
rest in hope,' as David saith, ' we shall be gathered to our fathers ;' we
shall ' see corruption,' indeed. But mark what David saith, Ps. xvi. 9, 10,

KING David's epitaph. 515

* My flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to
see corruption.' Then this is the upshot of all. Though we ' see corrup-
tion' when we are dead; yet, with the eye of faith, we see a rising again
from * corruption.' We see death but as a pot to refine us in. Even as
it is with silver, when there is much corruption and heterogeneal matter
mingled with it, the fire refines it, but it is not lost. So the grave refines
the body, and fits it for a glorious resurrection. * The flesh rests in hope'
all the while, though the body see corruption. Because our head saw no
corruption. If the head be above water, what if the body be down ? Our
head saw no corruption ; that is, Christ, for he rose out of the grave before
his body was putrified ; for his body had a subsistence, and was gloriously
united to the second person in Trinity ; and, being united to the Lord of
life, it saw no corruption. For that did not lie upon Christ as our Saviour
to be corrupt, but to die, ' to be made a curse for us,' Gal. iii. 13, and then
especially, I say, by reason of the near union of it to the God of Ufe.

Well, then, what is David's argument of comfort ? In Ps. xvi. 9, 10,
' My flesh shall rest in hope ; because thou wilt not suffer thine holy one
to see corruption.' Because Christ rose from the grave himself, the holy
one of God, our flesh may rest in hope, though we see corruption. Be-
cause the same divine power that raised Christ our head out of the grave,
that his body saw no corruption, will raise our bodies to be like his glorious
body. Our blessed Saviour, that overcame death in his own person, by his
power he will overcome death for all his mystical body, that is, his church.
It shall be perfect in heaven, soul and body together, as he himself is
glorious now in heaven. That we may say with David, notwithstanding
our bodies see corruption, as his did, 3'et our flesh shall rest in hope,
because God's holy one saw no corruption.

NOTES.

(a) P. 490. — ' This I observe from the very language or phrase.' The j^hrase is,
hi:if]OiTrj<Sag rfj rov Qiou l3ovXfj = having served the counsel of God, as Sibbes
suggests. Of. ver. 22.

(6) P. 492. — ' " David in his generation served the will, or counsel, of God," as the
word is.' See note a above.

(c) P. 493. — ' Man, take him in his nature, is like a tree. The poet could say
to that purpose.' This comparisoii is frequent in the Classics and in all languages.
By the poet is probably intended Homer, and the reference to the famous passage
II. ^ 146—

Oi'/j rrs^ cph'k'kMV ysvirj, TOf/jdi za/ dvS^uiv
<t>vXXa rd /m;v r civi^u^og ^a/xa^/g %££', aX}.cc 6i &" uX»i
Tr^XiSouaa (pvsi, 'ia^og h' sTiyiyvirai w^'{l-
'rig dvb^u'J yi)iiy\, y\ (mv (pvn, i] 8' d'lToXriyii.
Tims translated by Cowper : —

' Why asks Diomede of my descent ?
For as the leaves, such is the race of men.
The wind shakes down the leaves, the budding grove
Soon teems with others, and in spring they grow.
So pass mankind. One generation meets
Its destined period, and a new succeeds.'
The Elizabethan poets furnish many splendid examples of tlie metaphor; eg., Ben
Jonson, i!«Iassinger, and their compeers.

516 KING David's epitaph.

(d) P, 495. — ' In regard of the ills, we may say with Saint Austin, " Lord, to what
times are we reserved." ' One of his lamentations during his passionate controversies
with the Donatists, and when Hippo was besieged by the Vandals, during which
calamity this illustrious father expired.

(e) P. 498. — ' As the civil law saith, infringit obedientiam' &c. Still a \a,-w-maxim.

(f) P. 507. — ' As Lactantius saith, " that is no religion that we leave behind
when we come to the church-door." ' Cf. for the thought, his Be Falsa Religione
repeatedly. G.

LYDIA'S CONVERSION.

LYDIA'S CONVEKSION.

NOTE.

' Lydia's Conversion ' is the former of two short treatises published in a small
volume (18mo) in 1638. The general title-page will be found below.* Prefixed is
Marshall's miniature portrait of Sibbes. The'Eescue from Death; or, Return of
Praise,' will be found in its place in Vol. VII. This little volume is exceediugly
uncommon. G.

* THE

RICHES

MERC IE.

In two Treatises ;

1. Lydia's Conversion.

2. A Rescue from Death.

By the late learned, and reverend

Divine, Richard Sibbs,

Doctor in Divinitie.

Published by the Authors owne

appointment, aiid subscribed

with his owne hand to prevent

imperfect Copies.

1 Sam. 2. 6.
The Lord killeth, and maketh alive ;
hee bringeth doivne to the Grave
and bi-ingeth up.

London
Prijited by I. D. for Francis
Eglesfeild, and are to be sold by
him at the signe of the Ma-
rigold in Paul's Church-
yard. 1638.

LYDIA'S CONVERSION.

And a certain woman, named Lydia, aseller of purple, of the city of Thyaiira,
that worshipped God, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to the
things that icere spoken of Paul. And when, dc. — Acts XVI. 14, 15.

The holy apostle, St Paul, a vessel of mercy, having found mercy himself
of God, was a fit instrument to preach mercy to others.

Hereupon he was appointed to be a preacher to the Gentiles. Among
the rest of the Gentiles, he was called to preach to them of Macedonia,
and it was by a vision, as we see in the former part of the chapter. Verse
9 : ' A man of Macedonia,' appeared to Paul by night, and said, ' Conie
to Macedonia and help us.' Indeed, the state of the people of Macedonia
called for help ; as now the state of many people doth. Though there be
not such a vision as a man of Macedonia, yet their wretched estate, being
under the kingdom of Satan, cries, ' Come and help us.' Though they do
not cry with their mouths, yet their estate cries. The apostle upon this
vision, takes his journey to come toward Macedonia ; and he stayed there
a good while ; ' he abode certain days.'

Though God called him to Macedonia, yet God did not give him great
encouragement for the present. This is the manner of God's carriage, not
to discover at the present what he will do, but leads people on by gentle
encouragements ;^andto humble them the more with little fruit at the first.
He ' abode there certain days,' without any great fruit. Afterwards he
goes out to Philippi, the chief city of Macedonia ; and on the Sabbath day
the people were gathered together, a company of women were resorted to-
gether, and there he preached to them. As indeed holy communion is
never without a blessing. They met together on a good day, the Sabbath ;
and for a good end they were met together. Now Paul took the advantage
of their meeting together on the Sabbath day. He cast his net, and he
catcheth one with her family, namely, Lydia. The gospel was a sweet
savour of salvation to her.

Hereupon there is a discourse of Lydia, a short story of Lydia, a story
worthy to be thought of, which is in the words of my text.

♦ A certain woman named Lydia,' &c.

She is described, first, by her person and sex , ' a certain woman ;' by
her name, ' Lydia ; ' by her calling, ' a seller of purple ; ' by her city,

520 lydia's conversion.

* Thyatira ;' by hex pious disposition, ' she worshipped God.' And then
her conversion is set down by the cause of it : ' God opened her heart.'
And what followed upon that opening of her heart : ' she attended to the
things that were spoken by Paul ; ' and likewise, ' she was baptized with
all her household. And then the sweet fruit that this conversion of her
with all her household had, presently she shewed the love that she felt
from God in converting her, to the blessed apostle and his company, ' She
besought them, saying. If ye have judged me faithful to the Lord, come to
my house,' &c., which words 1 shall unfold as I come to them.

* And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple,' &c.

First, here is a description of her person, and sex, and name, and calling,
and city, and disposition.

God takes notice of all the particulars of those that are his. He delights
to speak of them. Those that have their names written in the book of
life, he knows their names, and callings, and persons. They are jewels in
his ej'es. They are ' written on the palms of his hands,' Isa. slix. 16.
He takes more special notice of them than of the rest of the world. There-
fore the apostle is very punctual in the description of all particulars.

For her person I will be very short. I will give but a note or two, and
so come to that I mainly aim at, her conversion.

' A certain woman named Lydia.'

For her sex, she and the rest were women that were gathered together,
as we see in the former verse. ' In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor
female,' Gal. iii. 28. Sin came in by a woman ; and the means of salva-
tion was by a woman too. Here were a company of women gathered to-
gether.

For the most part women have sweet affections to rehgion, and therein
they oft go beyond men.

Reason 1. The reason is, religion is especially seated in the affections;
and they have sweet and strong aflections.

Beason 2. Likewise they are subject to weakness, and God delights to
shew his ' strength in weakness.'

Reason 3. And thirdl}', Especially child-bearing women, bring others into
this life with danger of their own ; therefore they are forced to a nearer
communion with God, because so many children as they bring forth, they
are in peril of their lives. Therefore the apostle here mentions a company
of women that were gathered together, and among the rest, a ' certain
woman named Lydia.'

What ! a woman to be the foundation of the church of Macedonia ; a
poor woman ! and then a jailor afterward, a rugged, rough jailor ! For
these to be the foundation of so famous a church as Philippi, and other
churches in Macedonia ! Oh yes ! The kingdom of heaven is as ' a grain
of mustard seed,' Mat. xiii. 31, small in the beginning. It is so in regard
of the church itself; and in regard of the grace that every particular
member hath. It is little and weak beginnings. Christians are not as the
angels were, perfect at the first. The church grows by little and little.
Therefore we should not be discouraged when the plantation of the gospel
hath poor success at the beginning. We see in the church of Macedonia
there was little success at the first. A woman and a rough jailor ; a jailor
that both by calling, and disposition, and custom, was a man hard and
hardened too. Yet these two were the foundation of a great church.

lydia's conversion. 521

"Was it not so strange ourselves ? The church of later times, in the
time of reformation, how began it ? By a child and a woman ; King
Edward the sixth, and Queen Elizabeth of famous memory. Therefore as
the prophet saith, ' Who art thou that despisest the day of little things ? '
Zech. iv. 10. Despise not little things. There is nothing less than grace
at the first. But as Christ the stock of Jesse, rose from the dead, and rose
up to heaven, and overspreads the world now ; so every Christian riseth
of mean beginnings ; and so doth the church itself. ' A certain woman
named Lydia.' She was the foundation of a famous church.

Then she is set down by her calling.

' A seller of purple.'

God allows callings.

The calling of Christianity is shewed in particular callings, which are
sanctified by God to subdue the excess of corruptions. Men without call-
ings are exceedingly vicious, as some gentlemen and beggars. In this I
may rank them together. Those that have no callings, nor fit themselves
for a calling, and that are out of a calling lawful.

Callings are lawful ; and so this calling of commerce and trade, ' a seller
of purple.' Though for the most part men gather a great deal of soil and
corruption, by co-mixture of manners with those they deal with, yet there
must be commerce, and this particular commerce of ' selling of purple.'

The body of man needs many callings. There is not a part of man's
body, not one member, but it sets a particular calling on work. Therefore
this life is a life of many necessities ; and there must be callings and trad-
ing, and this particular trading, ' selling of purple.' It may seem super-
fluous, but it is not altogether ; for garments are for three ends :

For necessity, ornament, distinction.

Now purple, however it be not for necessity, it is for ornament and dis-
tinction ; for magistrates and the like, persons of great quality. However
the pride of the times hath bred a confusion, that one will go as well as
another ; yet God that allows distinctions of callings and persons, allows
distinction of habit and attire. Therefore selling of purple is lawful, and
the wearing of rich attire. ' Kings' daughters ' went in such, as it is said
of David's daughters,

So there be not over-much delicacy ; for delicacy in this in these times
is fatal, as there be many in the city and in the countries that are given to
over-much nicety and sumptuousness in this kind. It is a fore-runner of
ruin.

Otherwise it is lawful, for those that may, to wear purple, as it is lawful
to sell purple. So that, as he said to the great emperor («), they do not
consider the purple, so much as that the purple covers dust and base flesh,
that must turn to dust and ashes and rottenness ere long ; so that people
be not lift up in that that is borrowed from the poor creature, from worms.
It is a strange thing that men should be so sick in their fancy, as to think
themselves the better for that they beg of the poor creature. So a man
take heed of fancy and pride, it is lawful to use purple. ' She was a seller
of purple.' So much for her calling.

' She worshipped God.'

She was perhaps a Jew, and looked for a Messiah. There were three
sorts of people before Christ. The Jews, and those which we call prose-
lytes, and religious persons fearing God. She might be one of the three;

522 lydia's conversion.

it is not certain what she was. Certainly she was one that feared God.
She had some religion in her. Though yet she was not ripened in the true
religion, she was a woman that ' feared God.'

From such kind of places as this, we have occasion to speak of works of
preparation. St Paul was sent to her ; she was a woman that feared God.
To speak a little of works of preparation.

It is true God usually prepares those that he means to convert, as we
plough before we sow. We do not sow among the thorns ; and we dig
deep to lay a foundation ; we purge before cordials. It is usual in nature
and in grace preparations ; therefore preparations are necessary. There is
such a distance between the nature and corruption of man and grace, that
there must be a great deal of preparation, many degrees to rise by before
a man come to that condition he should be in. Therefore preparations we
allow, and the necessity of them.

But we allow this, that all preparations are from God. We cannot pre-
pare ourselves, or deserve future things by our preparations ; for the pre-
parations themselves are of God.

And, thirdly, though we gi-ant preparations, yet we grant no force of a
meritorious cause in preparations to produce such an effect as conversion
is. No. Only preparation is to remove the hindrances, and to fit the soul
for conversion, that there may not be so great a distance between the soul
and conversion as without preparation there would be.

Quest. But when is preparation sufficient ?

Ans. When the soul is so far cast down as it sets a high price on Christ,
and on grace, above all things in the world. It accounts grace the only
pearl, and the gospel to be the kingdom of heaven. When a man sets a
high price on grace more than all the world besides, then a man is suffi-
ciently prepared.

Some poor souls think they are never prepared enough ; but let them
look to the end that God will have preparation for, that is, that a high
price be set upon the best things, and value all things but grace meanly in
their own rank. When a man is brought to that pitch that by the light of
the Spirit he esteems all nothing but Christ, and that he must be had, and
he must have saving grace, let him never talk whether he be prepared or
no. This disposition shews that he is prepared enough, at least to bring
him to conversion.

Now, God in preparation for the most part civiliseth people, and then
Christianiseth them, as I may say ; for the Spirit of God will not be effec-
tual in a rude, wild, and barbarous soul ; in men that are not men. There-
fore they must be brought to civility ; and not only to civility, but there
must be a work of the law, to cast them down ; and then they are brought
to Christianity thereupon.

Therefore they take a good course that labour to break them from their
natural rudeness and fierceness ; as by nature every man is like ' a wild
ass colt.' There cannot be more significant words, ' a colt, an ass colt,
and wild,' Job xi. 12. Now, there is no sowing in the sand or on the
water. There is no forcing of grace on a soul so far indisposed, that is,
not brought to civility. Kude and barbarous souls therefore, God's
manner is to bring them in the compass of civility, and then seeing what
their estate is in the corruption of nature, to deject them, and then to bring
them to Christianity, as we see here in Lydia.

For however there is no force of a meritorious cause in preparations to
grace, to raise up the soul to grace ; for, alas ! that cannot be. It is not

lydia's conversion. 623

in it to produce such a blessed effect. Yet notwithstanding it brings a
man to a less distance than other wild creatures that come not within the
compass of the means. Therefore usually to those that use the talents of
their understanding and will, that they have, well, God after discovers him-
self more and more.

Therefore let all be encouraged to grow more and more to courses of
civility and religion, and wait the good time till God shine on them in
mercy. For though those courses can never produce religion, yet it brings
men to a proximity and nearness to God and Christ, more than those that
stand further off. But I will not force this point further at this time.
' She was a woman that feared and worshipped God.' She was faithful in
that light she had ; ' and to him that hath shall be given,' Mat. xiii. 12.

' She worshipped God.'

Not in any sight of her own. She had the grace of God from the Spirit
of God. All fear comes from the Spirit of God, initial fear and ripened
fear ; all fear is from God, But I will not conflict with adversaries at this
time. You see the person, a woman ; her calling, ' a seller of purple ;' and
her pious disposition, she was such a one ' as w^orshipped God,' * and she
heard Paul.'

The sweet providence of God brings those that belong to election under
the compass of the means at one time or other. Let the devil, and the
instruments of the devil, rage and oppose, and do what they can, those
that belong to God, God will have a time to bring them within the com-
pass of his calling, and effectually call them by his Spirit. As here
Lydia, there was a sweet preventing- providence that she never thought
of. God brought an apostle for the salvation of her soul. She heard
Paul, and was converted. To come to the description of her conversion in
the next words.

' Whose heart the Lord opened to attend to the things that were spoken
of Paul.'

God opened her heart. To what purpose ? ' To attend to the things
spoken of Paiil.'

' God, by the word preached,' opens the hearts to attend to the word.
By the word we are fitted to the word. The Spirit and the word draw us
to themselves ; the Spirit and the word draw us to regard the word ; by
the word her heart was opened to attend to the word.

First, I will speak of the ojmiiug her heart. And then of her attending
upon the word preached by Paul, ' God opened her heart.' She was a
religious woman, yet her heart was shut before God opened it. She was
religious in her kind, yet her heart must be further opened before she could
be saved. There is no staying in preparations in this or that degi-ee, as
many abortives in our times that make many offers. They have the Spirit
of bondage, and are cast down ; but there they stick, and never come to
proof. But those that will attain to salvation must not rest in religious
dispositions, in good affections, and gracious oiiers. They must go on
further and further, as we see here : ' God opened her heart.'

Observe then in the opening of the heart these things.

1. First, The heart is naturally shut and closed 7ip, as indeed it is to spi-
ritual things. It is open enough to the world, and to base contentments
here ; but it is shut to heaven and heavenly things. Naturally it is clean
locked up.

* That is, ' going before,' = anlicipating. — G.

524 lydia's conveesion.

Partly in its own nature, being corrupt and earthly ; partly because Satan
lie besiegeth all the senses, and shuts up all. There is a spirit of deafness
and blindness, and a spirit of darkness and deafness in people, before God
hath brought them by the powerful work of the gospel from the kingdom
of Satan, that possesseth every man naturally. Naturally therefore our
hearts are not open, but locked and shut up. That is supposed here.
So that except God be merciful to break the prison, as it were, whereby by
unbelief and the wickedness of our nature we are shut up, there is no hope
of salvation at all. God opens the heart.

2. The second thing is this, that as our hearts are shut and closed up
naturally, so God, and God alone, opens the heart, by his Spirit in the use of
the means. God opened Lydia's heart.

God hath many keys. He hath the key of heaven to command the rain
to come down. He hath the key of the womb ; the key of hell and the
grave ; and the key of the heart especially. ' He opens, and no man
shuts ; and shuts and no man opens,' Kev. iii. 7. He hath the key of
the heart to open the understanding, the memory, the will, and affections.
God, and God only, hath the key of the heart to open that. It is his pre-
rogative. He made the heart, and he only hath to do with the heart. He
can unmake it, and make it new again, as those that make locks can do.
And if the heart be in ill temper, he can take it in pieces, and bring it to
nothing as it were, as it must be before conversion ; and he can make it a
new heart again. It is God that opens the heart, and God only. All the
angels in heaven cannot give one grace, not the least grace. Grace comes
merely* from God. It is merely from God. All the creatures in the world
cannot open the heart, but God only by his Holy Spirit. For nature cannot
do above its sphere, as we say, above its own power. Natural things can
do but natural things. For nature to raise itself up to believe heavenly
things, it cannot be. Therefore as you see vapours go as high as the sun
draws them up, and no higher, so the soul of man is lift up to heavenly
things by the power of God's Spirit. God draws us and then we follow.
God, I say, only openeth the heart.

(1.) Because there is not only want of strength in the soul to open itself,
but likewise there is enmity and poison in the heart to shut itself, and shut
out all goodness. A man hath no senses to spiritual things, no eyes, no
ears, no taste, no life. Nay,

(2.) There is an opposition to all. ' A natural man perceiveth not the
things of God, neither can he,' 1 Cor. ii. 14. He wants senses, and those
senses he hath are set against goodness, as the apostle saith, ' he esteemeth
them foolishness.' I need not be much in so easy an argument, that you
are well enough acquainted with. Naturally the heart is shut, and God
only must open it.

Use. This should teach us patience, when we can do little good with those
that are under us by all our instructions and corrections, wait the due
time. Grace is not of thy giving. The heart is not of thy opening, or of
any man's opening. Therefore as it is 2 Tim. ii. 23, seq., wait and bear
' with patience men of contrary minds,' waiting when God in due time gives
them grace to repent. Grace is God's creature. It is none of our own.
Therefore take heed that we be not short and angry spirited. If we cannot
have all we would have of those that are under us, children or servants, let
us wait God's time. He opens the heart in his time.

And if we find not grace wrought in our own hearts at the first, or second,
* That is, ' altogether.' — G.

LYDIA S CONVERSION. 525

or third sermon, let us do as he at the Pool of Bethesda, lie there till the
angel stir the water, till God be effectual by his Spirit. God doth it, and
he only doth it, only we must wait. He will do it in his good time. Be
not over short-spirited. This we ought to observe out of these words,
* God opened the heart of Lydia.'

The heart is put for the whole soul. He opened her understanding to
conceive ; for all things begin with heavenly light of the understanding.
All grace comes into the soul by the understanding.

■^ There is no sanctifying grace in the affections but it comes by enlighten-
ing the understanding. We see the grounds of it in the understanding
first. God opens the understanding, and then he opens the memory to
retain. That the memory may be as the pot of manna to hold heavenly
things, he opens and strengthens it with retention to keep them, and he
opens the will to close with holy things, and the affections to joy and
delight in them. So the heart is the whole inward man. He not only
enlightens the understanding, but infuseth grace into the will and affections,
into the whole inward man. We must take it in that extent, for else if
God should only open the understanding, and not through the understand-
ing flow into the will by the power of his Spirit, the will would alway rebel,
as indeed it is a poisonful thing. There is nothing so mahcious, next the
devil, as the will of man. God will have one way, and it will have another.
Therefore God doth not only open the understanding to conceive, but he
opens the will to close with and to embrace that that is good ; or else it
will take arms against the understanding in that that is good, and never
come to the work of grace. Therefore take it so. He opened the will and
affections as well as the understanding, though whatsoever is in the will
and affections comes through the understanding, as well as heat comes
through light. God opened her heart, to what end ?

' To attend to the things that were spoken of Paul.'

The word signifies to apply and set her mind to the things that Paul
said, to join and fasten the mind to what Paul said {h).

First, You see then, here is the openiiifj of the heart before there is
attendinr/. Before there can be any attending and applying of the mind,
the mind must be sanctified and strengthened. The soul must be sanctified
before it can attend.

The reason is, nothing can flow but from a suitable faculty, and ability
to attend is a power and act of the soul. It must come from a sanctified
power of the soul. The heart must first be opened, and then the heart
attends. God saith, he will circumcise the heart, and then we shall love him.
He sanctifies the heart, and then it loves him. God changeth and altereth
the frame of the soul, and then holy actions come from it. First, grace begins
with the abilities and powers of the soul. The heart is opened, and then
come holy actions suitable. There is no proportion between holy actions and
an unsanctified soul. The heart must first be opened, and then it attends.

' Whose heart the Lord opened that she attended,' &c.

You see then, in the next place, that God opening the heart of any
Christian, it is to carry the attention to the word. God by grace carries
the heart to the word. ' She attended to what Paul spake.' Where
true grace is wrought, it carries not to speculation, or to practise this or
that idle dream ; but where the heart is open, grace carries to attend to the
word, especially to the good word, the gospel of Christ. As grace is
wrought by the word, so it carries the soul to the word.

526

LYDIA S C0N^1;RSI0N.

Use. And therefore it may be a use of trial, to know whether we have
our hearts wrought on by the grace of God or no ; whether God by his
Spirit have opened our hearts or no, if our hearts be carried to the blessed
word of God to relish that. If they be, God hath opened our hearts to
attend to the word. And there is no better evidence of a child of God,
than that that is fetched from the aflection that he carries to the word and
blessed truth of God. Oh, he rehsheth it as his appointed food. He can-
not be without it. Take away that, and you take away his life. ' My
sheep hear my voice,' John x. 3. You are none of mine, because you hear
not my word. A delight in the blessed truth of God is an argument that
God hath first opened the heart.

Therefore poor souls, when they want good evidence, when they doubt
whether their estate be good or no, let them consider what relish they have
of divine truths ; whether it be co-natural to the word* or no ; whether it be
savoury or no ; whether they could be without the means of salvation or
no ; and let them judge of themselves by their delight in God's truth. Her
heart was opened ' to attend to the word.'

' She attended to the things which were spoken of Paul.'

Which were the blessed truths of salvation, the forgiveness of sins,
the free mercy of God in Christ. The particulars are not set down, but it
was the gospel, and she believed upon it. Therefore it must needs be the
word of faith. We see here then that

The seed and ground of faith is the gospel.

Her heart was opened to attend to that that Paul spake, which was the
gospel. And indeed so it is. The foundation of faith, the word of faith,
is the gospel. Nothing can breed faith but the word of God ; for how can
we hope for heaven and happiness, but by the mind of God discovered ?
Can we look for anything but God must discover his mind to bestow it ?
And where have we the mind and bosom of God opened to us ? Is it not from
the Scriptures, the word of God, from the good word especially ? It is called
the * word of grace,' and ' the word of the kingdom,' and ' of glory,' the
' word of life ;' because by it all these blessed things are conveyed to us. '

Now it is not the word simply here, but the word ' spoken by JPaul ;' that
is, the word jpreached by an authorised minister is the usual means of
faith. Her heart was opened to attend to what was spoken by Paul, an
authorised minister. So the word preached is the ordinary, though not
the sole foundation of faith. Therefore the apostle saith, that God by that
converted the world, ' by the foolishness of preaching,' 1 Cor. i. 21. And
in the ladder of heaven, in Ptom. x. 14, scq., ' How shall they call on him
of whom they have not heard ? . . . and how shall they preach except they
be sent ?' So there is no faith without teaching. The point is plain. You
hear it oft. The word is the ground of faith ; and the word especially as
it is preached by a Paul, by a minister unfolding it.

Use. Therefore be stirred up, as ye favour the souls of God's people, to
pray to God ' to send labourers into his harvest,' Mat. ix. 38 ; and to pray
that the gospel, and the preaching of it, may have a free passage, that
God would set up lights in all the dark corners of the kingdom, and every-
where to * those that are in darkness, and in the shadow of death,' Ps.
evii. 10. And blessed are their endeavour that labour that the gospel
may be preached in every part of the kingdom. For we see here it is the
word unfolded, * the unsearchable riches' of Christ spread open, the tapes-

* Qu. ' heart ' ?— Ed.

lydia's conversion. 527

try laid open, that usually beget faith. The mine must be digged ; people
must see it familiarly laid open.

Therefore saith he here, Lydia's heart was opened, * and she attended to
the words spoken by Paul.'

Let this teach us to set a price upon the ordinance of God. Doth God
set up an ordinance, and will he not give virtue and power to it ? Yes.
There is a majesty and a power in the word of God to pull people out of
the kingdom of Satan, to the blessed light of God's kingdom. It was the
word, and the word opened by the ministiy of Paul.

But it was the word, and the word opened and attended to. She mixed
it with her attention, and her heart closed with it. There are these three
go together ; the word, and the word preached, and then attending to
the word preached. That was the ground of her faith ; these three meet-
ing together.

There are these four things must always be in the senses of our body.
If we will see, there must be an object to see, we must see something ; and
a faculty to see, our eye ; and then a light whereby we see ; we cannot see
in the dark. And then there must be an application of the eye to see the
object by that light. So in spiritual things there is the blessed truth of
God, the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. That we may see these things,
we must have a light by which we may see them. And there must be a
power to see, which is the sanctified, opened understanding. When the
understanding is opened, then there is an application of the soul to attend
to the word of God by the light of the word. So that there must be appli-
cation and attention to the word. Before the word can do us good, it
must be applied to the object, the taste to the thing tasted ; and so in all
the other senses.

Attention is a special thing. How many sermons are lost in this city,
that are as seed drowned, that never come to fruit ! I think there is no
place in the world where there is so much preaching, and no place where
there are so many sermons lost. Why ? Because people want a retaining
power and faculty to attend, and retain and keep what we hear. She
' attended to the word preached.'

To give a little direction in this point of attending and applying the
mind. Not to speak much, I will name two or three principal things that
I think fit at this time.

1. If we should come, as we should, to the word preached : Let us search
our wants before ive come, and all the occasions ice shall have to encounter
tvith; all temptations that ice are like to encounter icith, Jet its forecast hj pre-
senting to our souls. I am v/eak in knowledge, and I want such graces. I
am like to encounter with such temptations, I am too weak for it ; I shall
meet with such adversaries, I know not how to answer them ; I am plunged
in such businesses, I shall be lost in them without grace. Then the soul
comes with a mind to be supplied ; and then it v/ill attend, and will pray
for the preacher. Oh, Lord, direct him that he may speak fitly to me ;
somewhat for my understanding ; somewhat for my afi'ections ; somewhat
to help me against such and such a temptation. This is wanting ; and
therefore we profit no more by the word than we do.

2. Then when we come to hear the word, let us hear it ivith all spiritual
subjection, as that ivord that hath power to command the conscience. This is
the word of God. The minister of God speaks in the place of God to me.
I must give an account of it. I will subject my conscience to it. It is
spoken with evidence, and proved ; I will stoop to it. Thus we should

528 lydia's conversion,

come with subjection of soul and conscience to whatsoever is taught ; and
not come to judge and censure, or to delight in it as music, as if we came
to a play, to hear some pretty sentences. But come to hear God, as to
the ordinance of God, come as to that word that shall judge our souls at
the latter day. That is the way to attend.

3. Then again, if we would attend when we have heard the word of God,
let us labour by all means to bring it near to us, that it may be an ' engrafted
word,' James i. 21 ; that the soul may be leavened by it, that it may be so
engrafted in the understanding and aflections, that we may think the better
in the virtue of it, and love, and speak, and do the better, as a scion*
savours of the plant it is put into. Let us labour that the w^ord of God
may be written in our souls, in the tables of our hearts, that the truth of
God may be near us, as any temptation shall be near us, or any corruption
near us. What is the reason we yield to corruptions and temptations ?
They are near and the word is far off. We never attended to the word to
bring it near home. If the word were as near as corruptions and tempta-
tions, that it were engrafted and invested into the soul, we should have the
word ready for every temptation. There should not be a temptation offered,
nor a corruption arise, but we should subdue it and beat it down with the
blessed truth of God accompanied with the Spirit. Let us labour to get it
near us, that the reasons of the word and our reason, that the judgment of
God and our judgment, that the will of God and our own will may be all
one ; and so to have it incorporated and naturalized into our hearts, that
we may speak, and think, and do nothing but that which is divine ; that
is, to have the word written in our hearts, our attention should be to that
end. Therefore, when we hear, we should do as nature doth with the meat
we eat. It sucks out a strength suitable for every part. Every part hath
a power to draw out nourishment, what is suitable to itself. So when we
hear the word of God, we should be able to say, this is good for such and
such an end ; and never leave thinking of the word of God when we have
heard it, till we have turned the word into our souls, till we have it fixed
in our understandings, that we can say, now I know it ; till we have sub-
dued our hearts to it, and we be moulded and delivered up to it, that we
can say, now I have it, now the word is mine. Let us never leave the
truth we hear till we be brought to that. Alas ! to what purpose is it to
hear except we make it our own, as nature makes the meat our own that
we eat. There is a second or third digestion that goes before digestion be
perfectly made, and the meat turned into it. It is ruminating and meditat-
ing, and altering of that we hear, and working on it ; that makes spiritual
nourishment. Thus we should do to attend to purpose.

4. And that we may do it, let us add some meditations to these jn-actices.
Consider first of all whose word it is. It is the word of the great God,
and the word of God for my good. It is the good word of God, and the
word of God that brings me much good, eternal salvation, if I obey it. It
is the word of God that brings eternal damnation, if I obey it not.

It is the word of the great King, a proclamation, a law whereby I shall
be judged, and perhaps that word that I shall not hear another time.
Perhaps the Spirit may work more now than at another time. Therefore
I will be wise, and give way to the Spirit of God, and not beat it back.
Perhaps I shall never have such a gale of the Spirit offered again. It may
be the last sermon I shall hear while I live. We should have such medi-
tations, v/e that speak, as if it were the last time we should speak ; and you
* Spelled ' sience.' — G.

lydia's conveesion. 529

that hear, as if they should be the last things that ever you should hear.
For how do we know but it may be so ? It is another manner of matter
to hear than we take it. ' Take heed how ye hear,' saith our blessed
Saviour, Luke viii. 18. We hear nothing but it sets us forward in the
way of grace to heaven, or forward to hell. We are helped by it to heaven,
or else hardened by it further to hell. We had need to take heed how we
hear. We must be judged by that we hear ; and that that we hear now
negligently and carelessly, God will make good at the day of judgment.
We may shake off, as profane spirits do, the minister's exhortations ; but
will you shake off ' Depart, ye cursed,' at the latter day ? Matt. xxv. 41.
Will you shake off that sentence, * You would not hear me, and I will not
hear you' ? Oh no. Therefore shake not that off now that will be made
good then. If thou entertain the gospel now, God will make it good then ;
if thou receive mercy now, he will shew that thou art acquitted then before
devils, and angels, and men. Let us regard this, and let it make us hear
the word with attention, as this good woman here. God opened her heart,
* and she attended to the things that were spoken of Paul.'

Quest. But you will ask. How shall I know a man whose heart is opened,
and attends better than another man doth ?

Ans. 1. I will give two or three brief rules of discerning. He that by
the Spirit of God attends to the good word of God to purpose with an
opened understanding, he not only knows the words, and the shell in
preaching the word of God, but the things. He knows not only what faith
and repentance is in the words, but he hath a spiritual light to know what
the things are, what repentance is, and faith, and love, and hope, and
patience ; he knows the things. And likewise he that hath attended to
purpose, he can do the things. He not only knows what he should do, but
by the grace of the Spirit, and attending upon the word of God, he knows
how to do them. Grace teacheth him not only that he should deny him-
self and ' live soberly, and righteously, and godly,' Titus ii. 12, but it
teacheth him how to live soberly, and righteously, and godly. Grace,
when we attend upon the word as we should, teacheth us to do the things,
not only that we should repent and pray, &c., but to do them. It opens
the things, and gives ability to do them.

And in the next place, those that attend as they should do, there is a
spiritual echo in their souls to evcrythinrj that is taught ; that is, when they
are exhorted to believe, they answer. Lord, I will believe ; Lord, I will
hear, I will repent, and I will take heed of such sins by thy grace. When
God saith, ' Seek my face,' ' Lord, thy face will I seek,' Ps. xxvii. 8.
This is the answer of a good conscience, this echo. Where there is atten-
tion to the word of God by the Spirit, there is an echo to that the Spirit
speaks. Lord, it is good, and it is good for me if I yield to this ; if I do
not, it is naught- for me to put off repentance till another day ; I desire to
yield now, and Oh that my heart were directed ! If it be rebellious, and not
yielding, there is a desire that the heart may be brought into subjection
to every truth revealed, there is a gracious echo in them that attend to
purpose.

3. Then again, those that do attend from a sanctifying grace, they see
things by another light, by a spirit of their own, by a heavenly light, by
a species in their own kind, spiritual things with a spiritual light. Many
come and hear sermons, and can discourse, and wrangle, and maintain
j anglings of their own, and all this out of natural parts, and out of pride
* That is, ' naughty,' = wicked. — G.

VOL. VI. L 1

530 ltdia's conversion.

of heart ; but a gracious holy man sees spiritual things by a spiritual light
in their own kind.

A man that is born in a dungeon, and never saw the light, when he hears
discourse of the sun and stars, and earth, and flowers, and plants, he hath
imaginations what they should be, but he fancies other things. So a man
that never had spiritual eye-sight to see spiritual things in their kind, he
fancies them to be this and that, but he sees them not by their own light.
Many speak and talk of good things, but it is by the spirit of other men,
out of books and hearing, and not by a spirit of their own. He that
attends by grace, speaks out of a spirit of his own, and not out of other
men's spirits. He sees spiritual things in their own colours. Thus we
see how to discern spiritual attention.

4. And he that knows what this means, what it is to have his heart
opened to attend, when he goes from hearing the word, he judgetk of his
profiting by it, not by what he can say by heart, but by how much the meeker
he is, how much more patient, how much more able to bear the cross, to resist
temjJtations, and to have communion with God. So he values his attending
upon the means and hearing the word by the growth of his grace, and the
decay of his corruptions : ' she attended to the things that were spoken of
Paul.'

' She was baptized, and her household.*

She had the means of salvation, and she had the seal likewise, which is
baptism. We have all need of seals. We have need to have our faith
strengthened. God knows it better than we ourselves. We think bap-
tism and the communion small matters, but God knows how prone we are
to stagger. He knows that all seals are little enough. Therefore it is
said here, * she was baptized, and all her household.' Baptism is a
solemn thing; it is the seal of the covenant of grace. You are well
enough acquainted, I imagine, with the thing ; therefore I will not enter
into the commonplace. It is needless. As the whole Trinity was at the
baptism of Christ, so every infant that is baptised is the child of Christ.
And it is a special thing that we should meditate of.

We slight our baptism, and think it needless. You see the holy woman
here would be baptized presently ; she would have the seal of the covenant.
There are many that are not book-learned, that cannot read, at least they
have no leisure to read. I would they would read their book in their bap-
tism ; and if they would consider what it ministers to them upon all occa-
sions, they would be far better Christians than they are.

Think of thy baptism when thou goest to God, especially when he seems
angry. It is the seal of the covenant. Bring the promise : Lord, it is
the seal of thy covenant ; thou hast prevented * me by thy grace ; thou
broughtest me into the covenant before I knew my right hand from my
left. So when we go to church to ofier our service to God, think, by
baptism we were consecrated and dedicated to God. We not only receive
grace from God, but we give ourselves to God. Therefore it is sacrilege
for persons baptized to yield to temptations to sin. We are dedicated to
God in baptism. When we are tempted to despair, let us think of our
baptism. We are in the covenant of grace, and have received the seal of
the covenant, baptism. The devil is an uncircumcised, damned, cursed
spirit. He is out of the covenant. But I am in the covenant. Christ is

• That is, ' anticipated.' — G.

LYDIA S CONVERSION. 531

mine ; the Holy Ghost is mine ; and God is mine. Therefore let us stand
against all the temptations of that imcircumcised, unbaptized, damned
spirit. ^ The thinking of our baptism thus will help us ' to resist the devil,'
James iv. 7. He is a coward ; if he be resisted, he will flee ; and what will
better resist him than the covenant of grace and the seal of it ? When we
are tempted to sin, let us think. What have I to do with sin ? By baptism
I have union with the death of Christ ; he died to take away sin, and my
end must behis. I must abolish sin in my nature. Shall I yield to that
that in baptism I have sworn against ? And then if we be tempted to
despair for sin, let us call to mind the promises of grace and forgiveness of
sins, and the seal of forgiveness of sins, which is baptism. For as water
in baptism washeth the body, so the blood of Christ washeth the soul.
Let us make that use of our baptism, in temptations, not to despair for sin.
And^ in conversing among men, let us labour to maintain the unity of the
Spirit *in the bond of peace,' Eph. iv. 3, to live peaceably. Christians
must not fall to jar. Why ? ' There is one faith, and one baptism ; '
have we 'not all one Father,' ver. 5, one inheritance, one baptism, one
religion ? and shall we break one with another for trifles ? They forget
their baptism that are so in quarrels. Thus if we would think of' it, it'' is
such a book as would be ready at hand for all services.

And then for our children, those that God hath committed to us, let us
make use of baptism. Do they die in their infancy ? Make this use of
it : I have assured hope that my child is gone to God. He was born in
the covenant, and had the seal of the covenant, baptism ; why should I
doubt of the salvation of my child ? If they live to years of discretion,
then be of good comfort, he is God's child more than mine ; I have dedi-
cate him to God and to Christ, he was baptized in the name of Christ,
Christ will care for him as well as for me. If I leave my children behind
me, they are God's and Christ's children. They have received the seal of
the covenant, baptism. Christ will provide for them. And he that pro-
vides heaven for them will provide all things in the way to heaven neces-
sary._ God hath said, ' I will be the God of thee and of thy children,' Ps.
cxxxii. 12. They are in covenant. Thine they were. Lord. A man may
commit his children to God on his deathbed : Thou gavest them me, and
I commit them to thee again, as before I did by baptism. All this we have
by thinking of our baptism. If we look no further, as profane spirits do
not, than the water and the elements, we can have no comfort by these
things ; but we should consider God's blessed institution and ordinance to
strengthen our faith. And to our children when they come to years, bap-
tism is an obligation to beheve ; because they have received the seal
beforehand, and it is a means to believe. ' She was baptized.'
' And her household.'

So good is God, where the governor of the family is good, he gives all
the family good, because he makes conscience in governing and instructing
them. God crowns their endeavours with success, that they shall be all
good. As we see Abraham and his household, the jailor and his house-
hold, Zaccheus and his household. Oh, it is a blessed thing to be a good
governor in a family. He brings a blessing upon his house, the church of
God IS in his house. There cannot be a more honourable title to any
house than to say it is the church of God; that the governor of the family
brings all in subjection to God; that as he will have all serve him, so he
will have all serve God ; that he will not have a servant but he shall be the
servant of God, nor a child but he shall be the child of God; and he labours

532 lydia's conversiox.

to make his wife the spouse of Christ. Thus it should be said of every
Christian family, and then they are churches.

Alas ! in many places now they are hells, because there is little regard
had of instructing of them. Beloved, many poor souls have had occasion
to bless God for ever that they have been grafted into such good families.
And put case sometimes thou hast instructed them and taken pains, and
there is no good done. When thou art dead, and twenty years after, it
may come to their minds all those instructions when they are in worse
families. Oh ! in such a place, with such a master, I had such instruc-
tions, but I had no grace to take good by them, but now I call them to
mind. So the seed that was sown long before may take effect then. This
should encourage those that are governors of families to be good. ' Lydia
was baptized, and her household,''

' And she besought them, saying. If you have judged me faithful to the
Lord, come to my house, and abide there.'

Here is the fruit of Lydia's conversion. When she was converted and
baptized, she entreated the apostles to come to her house and abide there ;
and she prevailed. She constrained them by a moral kind of violence ;
they suffered themselves to be overcome.

' If you have judged me faithful, &c., come to my house, and abide there.'

Here is her invitation, and the argument that she forceth it by. * If
you have judged me faithful to Christ, then come to my house.'

To speak a little of her argument, whereby she forced the blessed apostle
and the rest to her house.

' If ye have judged me faithful.'

It is a most binding argument. If you judge me faithful, you must
judge me a child of God, an heir of heaven, the spouse of Christ ; you
must judge me all these and the like. * If you have judged me faithful,
come to my house.' And if you judge me so, can you deny me this cour-
tesy? It is a conjuring, wondrous forcible argument. * If you have
judged me faithful.'

It implies that St Paul and holy men would be more strange else ; and
so there should not be intimate familiarity — converse there may be, but
not familiarity — with those that are not faithful. Indifferent carriage to
all alike shews a rotten heart : those that make no difterence between
good Christians and formal hypocrites. No. But ' if you have judged me
faithful, come to iny home.'' As if she had said, I know your spirits are
such, that except you judge me faithful, you will not take this courtesy at
my hands.

Again, she supposed, if Paul judged her faithful, he would not deny her
that courtesy. Those that upon good grounds we judge faithful, we should
be gentle to them and easy to be entreated. ' The wisdom that is from
above is so,' James iii. 17. Grace sweetens the carriage and alters a man's
disposition. Those that have felt pity from God are merciful to others.
' Therefore, if you have judged me faithful,' &c.

It was an argument of a great deal of sincerity to appeal to their know-
ledge and judgment. * If you have judged me faithful.'

If she had not been sincere she would not have done so. But sincerity
makes a man bold to appeal to God himself. * Lord, thou knowest that I
love thee,' saith St Peter, John xxi. 15 ; and ' If there be any iniquity in
my heart,' saith David, Ps. Ixvi. 18. They dare appeal to God and to
God's people : * If ye Lave judged me faithful.'

LYDIA S CONVERSION. 533,

In this speech, likewise, she desires to have confirmation of her estate
from the apostles. And indeed it is a great confirmation of weak Chris-
tians to have the judgment of strong Christians that they are good, ' If you
have judged me faithful,' do me this courtesy. And would it not comfort
her soul to have the judgment of so strong a man as Paul ?

It is a great strengthening, not only to have the Spirit of God witness for
us, but the Spirit of God in others. And sometimes in temptations, the
judgment of others will do us more good than our own in a dark state.
Therefore we should appeal to those that fear God to judge us faithful,
though we be m a mist and in darkness sometimes, that we are not able to
judge of our own condition.

And indeed, when we judge the people to be truly good and true-hearted
to God, we owe them this duty : to think them good people, and to shew
it, it IS a debt. We wrong good persons when we take wrong conceits of
them. Shall we not afl'ect* and love them that God loves? It is as if
she had said, God hath taken me into his family, and will admit me to
heaven, and will not you come to my house ? When Christ shall take
men to be members of his body, shall not we take them into our company.
It is a wrong to good people to be strange to them. Sometimes there may,
by way of censure in some sin, be a little strangeness, but ordinary strange-
ness becomes not Christians. It becomes not that sweet bond, ' the com-
munion of saints.' ' If you have judged me faithful.' That is the bond.
Her invitation is,

' Come to my house, and abide there.'
' You see many sweet graces presently after she beheved. Here is a
loving heart. Why did she desire them to come to her house? To
express thelove she did bear to them for their work's sake. She felt the
love of Christ by their ministry ; and now she desired to express the fruit
of her love in maintaining them.

And not only so, but she desired to be edified by them. She was
youngly planted, and she desired to be watered from them. She knew
Paul would drop heavenly things, and give her that that might stablish her;
therefore she desired that they would stay at her house, that she might have
benefit by their heavenly discourse, and be built up and edified further and
lurther.

So you see these two graces especially upon believing, a bountiful, loving
heart. She entreated them not only to come to her house, but to abide there
a good while, as they did. And here was her desire to be edified, and a
boldness to appear to own Christ and his ministers in dangerous times.
For m those times it was a dangerous thing to appear to be a Christian.
They were worse hated than the Jews were. Though both were hated, yet
Christians were above all. Therefore false Christians would be ' circum-
cised,' they would be Jews to avoid the cross, that they might not be
accounted Christians.

You see in general true faith, that works love, and works by love. ' It
works love in the heart, and by love it works all duties of hospitality and
bounty by love. When it hath wrought that holy aff'ection, it works by that
holy afi'ection. _ You see here it is never without fruit ; presently faith
brings forth fruit. As soon as she was baptised, she shews her love to the
apostles, and their company, and her bounty and her boldness in the cause
of Christ.

We say of a graft, it is grafted to purpose if it take and bring forth fruit;
* That is, ' choose.' — G.

534

LYDIA S CONVERSION.

BO she being a new scion* graft into Christ, she took presently. As soon
as she was baptised into Christ, here is the fruit of love, and bounty, and
boldness in the cause of Christ. Zaccheus, as soon as ever he believed,
' Half my goods I give to the poor,' Luke xix. 8. So we see the jailor
afterwards, presently upon believing he entertained the apostles with a
feast, and washed their wounds.

Take heed of a barren, dead faith. It is a false faith. If thou believe
indeed, faith will work love, and work by love, as it did in this blessed
woman. Her faith knit her to Christ in heaven. Her love was as the
branches of the tree. Her faith knit her to the root ; but love as the
branches reached to others ; her branches reached fruit to the apostle and
his company. So it is the nature of faith that knits us to Christ. The
same spirit of love knits us to others, and reacheth forth fruit to all we
converse with.

As we desire to have evidence of the soundness of our faith, let us see
what spirit of love we have, especially love to these three things

1. Love to Christ, to whom we are engrafted, and,

2. Love to the ministers of Christ. We cannot shew kindness to Christ.
He is in heaven. But his ministers and his poor are upon the earth ;
when we can, buy ointment to pour on Christ's feet, his poor members,
and his ministers.

., 3. And love to the word of God. They are the three issues of a gracious,
believing heart, and where they are not there is no faith at all.

I beseech you, let us imitate this blessed woman. You see here the
name of Lydia is precious in the church. The name of Lydia, as it is
said of Josiah, it is a box of ointment poured oat. The name of Lydia
cannot be named in the church, but there is a sweet savour with it. As
soon as she believed, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God blowing upon the
garden of her heart, where the spice of grace was sowed, stirred up a sweet
scent of faith, and of bounty, and liberality in the cause of Christ.

Let not this be in vain to us, but every one of us labour to be like Lydia.
You see what loadstone drew Paul here to go unto her house ; she had
faith, and she expressed it in love.

Let us labour to have faith, and to express it in love to God, unto
Christ, to his people, and word, and ordinances, that have his stamp on
them ; and let us boldly own the cause of Christ ; let us not regard the
censures of vain men that say thus and thus. Faith and love forget
danger ; it is bold. She forgot all the danger that she was in by counte-
nancing Paul and such men.

Let us labour for faith and love, and we shall not say this and that.
* There is a lion in the way,' Prov. xxii. 13 ; but we shall go on boldly
until we do receive the end of our faith and love, ' the salvation of our
souls.'

* Spelled ' sience.' — G.

NOTES.

(a) P. 521. — ' Purple.' Probably the reference is to Tertullian. Of. footnote,
page 8Q.

\b) P. 625. — ' The word signifies to apply and set her mind,' &c. The word is
"T^offjp^w, on which of. Dr Robinson's interesting article in liis Lexicon, sub voce.
Literally here = to apply the mind ; but often in the Classics with the accessory
idea of believing, giving credence. G.

THE BRIDE'S LONGING

FOR

HER BRIDEGROOM'S SECOND COMING.

THE BRIDE'S LONGING.

NOTE.

'The Bride's LoBging for her Bridegroom's Second Coming' forms a small
volume (18mo), published in 1638. Its title-page is given below.* Of Sir Thomas
Crew, known by the venerable title of ' The poor man's lawyer,' nothing need be
added to the splendid eulogium of Sibbes, which, as in the case of Milton's upon
Bradshaw, has proved a more enduring monument than marble and brass. Prefixed
to the volume is Marshall's miniature portrait of Sibbes. I have not traced a second
copy of ' The Bride's Longing.' G.

* The
Brides Longing

for her

Bride-groomes

second comming.

Sermon preached at the funerall

of the right "Worshipfull, Sir

Thomas Crew, Knight,

Sergeant at Law to his

Maiestie.

The late learned and reverend Divine,

E I C H. S I B s.

Kev. 22. 17.

The Spirit and the Bride say, come, and let him
that heareth, say, come.

LONDON :

Printed by E. P. for G. Edwards, at

the signe of the Angell in green

Arbour. 1638.

TO THE EEADEE.

Loving Readers,— Lo, here the verifying of that ancient adage, Quod
differtur, non aufertur, for long looked for comes at last. That which,
before a solemn and sad assembljs was publicly preached and committed to
the ears of some, is now printed and committed to the eyes of all that have
a mind to read it ; which thing hath with a long and longing desire been
wished and waited for by sundry. This funeral sermon bespake your
receiving and respecting of it in a double consideration, each of which, in
my opinion, hath an important, rare, and singular ponderation. Behold,
first, the man ; secondly, the matter. The man by whom, and the_ man
for whom it was made : the one, that worthy divine Dr Sibbes, who in his
lifetime intended and approved it for the press, as it now comes forth ; the
other, that worshipful Serjeant, Sir Thomas Crew; men ofmore than ordinary
worth and goodness, whom to name is enough to those that knew them ; for
if I should enter into a particular discourse and discovery of their deserved
worth, I fear I should more dishonour my undertakings, and wrong your
expectation, than in any proportion answer the excellency of two such
worthy themes. Secondly, for the matter, as the occasion and men's
expectations were extraordinary, so shall you find his preparation. Read,
and then judge. It sweetly and to the life sets forth the duty, desire, and
disposition of the church and spouse of Christ echoing a faithful and prayer-
ful Amen to all the truths of God, especially to the precious promises,
and chiefly to that promise of promises, Christ's ' second coming ;' which
in cold blood undauntedly to desire, is an infallible mark of a true and
thorough convert ; which that we may do, we must make sure our espousal
to Christ here, and get to be clad with the wedding garment of faith and
repentance, teaching us to ponder and pray much, and then admirable
shall be our confident standing before God, our rich hope, our quietness
and heart's ease, our joy, as if we had one foot in heaven already. We
shall be able with St Paul to cast down our gauntlet and bid defiance to
devils, to men, to height, to depth, to things present and things to come.
If all the hearts in the world were one heart, it could not comprehend
those rich blessings wherewith true Christians are richly endowed, and
those spiritual joys and comforts which shall rain upon them in sweet
showers from heaven ; rich they are in hand, but richer in hope ; rich m
possession, but richer in reversion. For what ravishing joy, what inex-
pHcable sweetness shall then everlasting [ly J possess our souls, whenas we
who have been along time contracted to our Lord and husband, shall see
that blessed time come, when we shall have that glorious marriage between

538 TO THE READEK.

him and us, really and royally solemnised, in the presence of God and his
holy angels, and shall have the fruition of him and all his happiness, and
enjoy such heavenly fellowship, familiarity, and acquaintance with him,
transcendently ahove all the sweetest relations here helow, I say, with him
who is ' the Prince of peace,' ' the King of glory,' yea, the very glory of
heaven and earth, * the express image of his Father's person,' in whom
' those things which are invisible are seen,' * the brightness of everlasting
light,' the undefiled mirror of the majesty of God, and ' the desire of all
nations.' Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the
Lamb, Rev. xix. 9. Whereunto, that you may be admitted as a welcome
guest, you must both know and practise what in this treatise is contained.
To conclude, I am bold therefore, in the cause of God's honour and your
salvation, to entreat you, as ever you would have interest in Christ's blood
and blessedness, sufferings and satisfactions, as you mean to have any
fellowship or communion in heaven wdth the blessed saints and angels, as
you intend to have any part in that kingdom which the Lord Jesus hath
purchased with his own blood, that you would up and be doing that which
the wife of the Lamb is said to have done — Rev. xix. 7, ' Make your-
selves ready;' which if j'ou do, his speedy access shall bring to you speed-
ing success ; which that you may do, you shall not want his constant and
instant prayers, who is

Your Christian and cordial well-wisher,

G. H.*

These initials probably represent the Eev. George Hughes, B.D., of Plymouth,
one of the ' Ejected' of 1662, and father-in-law of the illustrious John Howe. — G.

THE BRIDEGROOM'S PROMISES,

AND

THE BRIDE'S PRAYER.

He which testijielh these things saith, Siireh/ I come quicUrj : Amen. Even
so, come, Lord Jesus. — Rev. XXII. 20.

As the churcb of God, being the weakest and the most shiftless* part of man-
kind, is never without trouble in this world, so God would never have it
to be without comfort. And therefore God reveals unto Christ m this
book, and Christ unto the angel, and the angel unto John, ' things to come,
from the ascension of Christ unto his ' second coming ;' that so, m all
conditions of the church, the church might have recourse unto this book,
to see what the issue of all would be. This is their comfort, that howso-
ever things maybe carried in this world in a seeming confusion, in a cloud,
and in a mystery, yet in conclusion all shall end well on the church's
side. Their trouble shall end in peace, their abasement in glory, and their
conflict in a crown. This we may see here verified. This revelation doth
end in the description of the glorious condition of the church. In the two
last chapters, as I take it, the evangelist Saint John sets down the glorious
estate of the church of God, even in this world, yet so as it shall end and
be consummate in perfect glory in the world to come. For the soul of a
Christian, like Noah's dove, cannot rest in any glory here, till it return to
the ark, till it come to the enjoyment of perfect glory, and have blissiul
communion with Christ for ever and ever in heaven. And therefore
Christ doth terminate and end the sweetness of his promises m heaven,
and at his last coming ; and the church likewise stretcheth and raiseth up
her desires to that. Howsoever, there shall be glorious times and things
here, yet these are but as the first fruits to the whole harvest, and as a drop
unto the ocean. Therefore, when you read of a glorious estate of the
church to be here upon earth, your minds must have recourse to the upshot
and consummation of all in heaven. Jerusalem which is from above must
lead us to Jerusalem which is above.

Now, because that man's unbeheving heart is too prone to think that
these things are too good to be true, and too great to be performed, seeing
such an immeasurable disproportion between his own unworthiness and
* That is, ' without expedients.' — G.

540

THE BRIDE S LONGING.

the excellency of the things promised, hereupon the mercy of our blessed
Saviour is such, that he confirms this his second glorious coming by all
kind of witnesses that may be. Here is the angel, verse 6 ; Christ him-
self, verse 7 ; the spouse, and the Spirit in the spouse, verse 17 ; and
Christ himself again in the words before the text, * Behold, I come quickly.'
Then you have the spouse's answer, ' Amen. Even so, come, Lord
Jesus.' Beloved, faith is a supernatural thing. It hath no friend within
us. It hath no help, no cause in the world, except God himself. There-
fore, it hath need of all confirmation. God knows us and our needs better
than we do ourselves, and you see he useth confirmation to help our un-
belief. And besides the witnesses, the thing itself is repeated again and
again, three or four times in this chapter : verses 7, 12, 20, ' Behold, I
come quickly,' and ' Behold, I come quickly,' and, ' Surely I come quickly.'
By every repetition, Christ seeks to gain upon our misgiving souls. ' Be-
hold, I come.' Now because our spirit is exceeding short, and we are
ready to cry out, as it is in the sixth of this book, ' How long, Lord, holy
and true?' Eev. vi. 10. How long? Why, he answers, 'Behold, I
come quickly.' _ You shall also find in the prophecies of the Old Testament,
the same promises delivered and repeated again and again, because of our
unbeHef; which ariseth from an inward guilt, that cleaves to our con-
sciences, because we are subject to failings, and are not so strict as we
should be. But such are the yearning bowels of our blessed Saviour, that
it grieves him to see his tender church afflicted and troubled in mind.
Therefore he helps all that he can.

Note. Observe then, I beseech you, in the words, the sweet intercourse
that is between Christ and his spouse. Christ promiseth again and again,
* Behold I come quickly ;' and the church saith, * Come ;' ' Amen. Even
so, come, Lord Jesus.' There is no intercourse in the world so sweet as
is that between Christ and his church. But we will come unto the words
themselves : ' Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.'

In these words you have, first, the assent of the church ; secondly, the
consent— her assent to the truth ; her consent to the goodness of the
truth. 'Amen : ' it is so. Nay, 'Amen : ' it shall be so. Nay, ' Amen : '
be it so ; or, let it be so. There is a wishing included in it. All these
are wrought by the Spirit. The Spirit convinceth us both of the truth and
of the goodness of the truth. And besides that, in the next words, the
same Spirit stirs up a ^desire and prayer : ' Even so, come, Lord Jesus.'
Holy desires are turned into fervent prayers.

Note. ^ Amen' is a short word, but marvellously pregnant, full of sense,
full of spirit. It is a word that seals all the truths of God, that seals every
particular promise of God. And it is never likely to arise in the soul,
unless there be first an almighty power from heaven, to seize on the powers
of the soul, to subdue them, and make it say, ' Amen.' There is such an
inward rising of the heart, and an innate rebellion against the blessed truth
of God, that unless God, by his strong arm, bring the heart down, it never
will nor can say, ' Amen.'

Note. But now the heart will not be pent in or restrained. The Spirit
is an enlarging thing; and therefore, besides 'Amen' (though 'Amen'
includes that which follows), the spirit breaks forth and saith, ' Amen.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.'

A little of ' Amen.'

Christ is said, in the beginning of this book, to be ' Amen, the true and
faithful witness,' Rev. iii. 14. And all the promises are said, in Christ

THE bride's longing. 541

Jesus, * to be yea and amen,* 2 Cor. i. 20 ; that is, they are made for his
sake, and performed for his sake ; they are made in him, and for him ;
and they are performed in him, and for him. And when 'Amen' — that is,
Christ himself — shall say his ' Amen ' to any thing, is it so much for us to
give our ' Amen ' ?

The point I mean to raise out of this word * Amen ' is this :

Doct. 1, Tliat the hearts of the children of God are 2)liable to divine truths,
to yield to the whole ivord of God, esj)eciaUy to the good tvord of God, viz., the
promises ; and of all promises, to the promise of promises, the second coming
of Christ.

They say * Amen ' to that, and that for these reasons :

Reason 1. Because there is a suitableness of disposition, and a kind of con-
naturalness, between a sanctified heart and sanctified truths, betu'een an holy
heart and holy things ; insomuch, that if an holy truth, never heard of
before, be heard by an holy heart, it will yield present assent ; for his heart
is subdued so, that he hath an * Amen' for it presently.

Reason 2. There is a sweet relish in all divine truths, and suitable to the
sweetness in them, there is a spiritual taste, which the Spirit of God puts
into the soul of his children. Though there be never so much sweetness
in things, if there be not a suitable taste, there is no relish in them. There-
fore, the Spirit of God, in his children, works a taste of the sweetness that
is in the word of God. And that is a main ground why they say ' Amen,'
especially to comfortable truths.

Reason 3. Again, when the soul is once contracted unto God, it hath no
will of its own, but it yields up his icill to God's will. The spouse hath no
will of her own, but her husband's will is her will. So if Christ say 'Amen,
I come quickly,' the spouse of Christ saith ' Amen' too.

Reason 4. God deals with his children, likeivise, by ivay of a covenant and
a contract. And above all other covenants, the covenant of a contract is
the sweetest covenant. Now, in it there must be a consent on our part ;
and therefore it is, that the Spirit always stirs up an ' Amen' on our parts
too. When he saith ' Amen,' it shall be so, then the soul saith, ' Amen,
Lord ; let it be so.' As in civil marriage there is a contract, so here, in
the spiritual ; and seeing there is a contract, there is also an assent to the
' second coming' of Christ. The contracted spouse must needs say 'Amen'
to the marriage day.

Reason 5. Lastly, the Spirit of God, in the hearts of his children, stirs
up in them this ' Amen,' as a seal of their effectual calling. If you should
ask me what effectual calling is, I answer, it is nothing else but the heart's
echo and answer to God's speech. God calls, and we answer. This is by
St Peter called, ' the answer of a good conscience,' 1 Pet. iii. 21. There
must be in the soul the answer of a good conscience to all divine truths.
Doest thou believe ? I do believe. Doest thou repent ? I do repent.
' Seek ye my face. Thy face. Lord, will I seek,' Ps. xxvii. 8. ' Keturn,
ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we
come unto thee ; for thou art the Lord our God,' Jer. iii. 22. Unless
there be thus the answer of a good conscience, there is no effectual calling.
Our calling is then effectual, when the Spirit stirs up in the heart an answer
unto it. Therefore, you see there must needs be an ' Amen' wrought in
the hearts of the children of God.

Use. Beloved, if this be so, I beseech you let us beg of God, if we find
any stubbornness or renitency* in our souls to divine truths, the perform-
* That is, ' striving against.' — G.

542 THE BRIDJi's LONGING.

ance of the covenant of grace, Lord, thou liast pi'omised fleshy and sen-
sible hearts, tender and yielding affections. Oh now grant them, and
work them.

Note. For, beloved, this you must know, howsoever God deals with us
by way of covenant, yet when he comes to perform the covenant, he works,
in a manner, our part and his own too. In effect, he makes a testament,
and not a covenant. In a testament we bequeath ; we do not covenant
and condition. So that, though God deals with his people by way of cove-
nant, as if you repent, if you believe, if you obey, yet he gives, by way of
testament, the grace that he bestows. Therefore, beg of God that, as he
requires this condition, that we should assent and be pliable unto his word,
so that he would make his covenant a testament and a will — I mean, that
he would effectually work it, and make us to do it — this should be our
desire of God. And so much the rather —

Motive 1. First, Because God honours us hy it, in having our consent. Is
not this a great honour to us, that he will not perform things without our
consent ? For indeed he will not accomplish the work of our everlasting
salvation without it. But then, if we set our seals to God's seal, and we
consent once, we even bind God himself. When he seals to us, and we to
him, we bind God almighty, and by that power of faith, subdue hell and
all our opposite enemies. When we seal to the truth of God, and cry
' Amen,' it is a word that fills heaven and earth. There is not a joyfuller
word in the world, than when whole congregations can say and shout
'Amen.' When God says 'Amen' in heaven, if we presently can say
' Amen' to his truth upon earth, he will say ' Amen' to our salvation. Thus
God honours us by it, when he comes for our consent.

Motive 2. We honour God ar/ain, hrj our seeding to his truth. Faith is that
which seals to God's truth, and 'Amen' is the very voice of faith.

Use 2. It is a pitiful thing, but common in the world, that God should
have no more credit with us. Poor distressed souls will say 'Amen' to the
lies of their own hearts, and presumptuous persons will say 'Amen' to a
liar, to a murderer, to an enemy, to Satan. But God hath so little credit
with us, that if he command, we will not say ' Amen ; ' if he promise, we
have no ' Amen' for him ; if he threaten, we bless ourselves, saying. We
shall do well enough : ' We shall have peace, though we walk after the
imagination of our own hearts, adding drunkenness unto thirst,' Deut.
xxix. 19. When the Spirit of God saith, ' He will stir up a fire in his
anger, and his wrath shall burn unto the lowest hell,' Deut. xxxii. 22,
against all such as go on in their sinful courses, yet they will flatter them-
selves. Well, beloved, we may shake off" God's word in the ministry, as
profane persons do ; but when God comes in the execution of his threaten-
ings, then his wrath shall burn to hell, and not be quenched. Who can
avoid or abide that dreadful sentence, ' Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels,' Mat. xxv. 41. God's words are not
as wind. Indeed, they are such a wind as will blow down all impenitent
sinners to hell. We must have a legal 'Amen' to the threatenings of God,
as well as an evangelical ' Amen' to the sweet promises. St John here, by
the Spirit of God, saith ' Amen ' to the promises of the time to come ; to
wit, for the confusion of antichrist, for the conversion of the Jews, and for
the glorious times to come, though he sees no evidence thereof for the
present ; and so must we to all divine truths.

But we have another kind and company of men that must be taxed, that
have indeed an ' amen ' and a seal, but it is to a blank. They are pre-

THE beidk's longing. 543

sumptuous persons, and such, which is worse, as will have God to say
' Amen ' to their courses. They will be naught* and sinful, and then study
and strive to bring God's word to stand bent to their bow ; and so in their
lying conceit make God say * Amen' to their lusts. They account it not
sufficient to have their will, but they will have God to be of their mind too,
and they will always get some daubers that shall say, ' Go on and prosper.'
An Ahab will always have his false prophets. What a wicked thing is
this, that we should make an idol of God, and transform him into the like-
ness of Satan, his enemies, to make him like that which he hates most.
We will continue in our sinful courses, and make as though we had the
word of God for us ; and. Oh we have the judgment of such and such,
and thus bolster up ourselves by building upon such sandy foundations.
When we should bring up our souls and resign them to God and his Spirit,
we will bring God down to our bent, and make him to say this and that,
agreeable to our carnal reason and corrupt affections.

But I must not enlarge myself in this. In a word, therefore, to conclude
this point : As there is a sweet harmony in God's truth, so let there be a
harmony in our hearts thereunto. God's truth always agrees with itself.
Oh let our hearts agree with it. When we hear a threatening, a precept,
or a promise. Oh let us say, ' Amen.' It is the sweetest harmony in
the world when we can bring our hearts to close with God and hisjword,
with his Spirit and truth, when we can be delivered ' into that form of doc-
trine which is delivered unto us,' Eom. vi. 17.

But now I go on. ' Even so, come. Lord Jesus.' We come from the
assent unto the consent, yielding unto that which Christ said as true and
good. We come unto the desire and prayer of the church : ' Even so,
come. Lord Jesus.'

Note. ' Amen' is an Hebrew word, and it is still retained, to shew the
consent of the Christian church with the Jewish, both with that which was
before, and with that which shall be afterward.f And it is expressed and
opened here, by a word following, ' yea,' or ' even so,' come. Lord Jesus.
You see the church desires, and out of her desire prays, ' Come, Lord Jesus.'
Now, this desire of the church shews the gracious disposition of the
church. These desires are the breathings and motions of the Spirit in the
soul, tending to further union. Even as motion tends to rest, so desires
tend to the uniting unto the thing desired. The church's desires here are
the immediate issue of the soul, and therefore undissembled, and they shew
the true character of a Christian soul. We may dissemble words and
actions, but we cannot dissemble our desires and affections ; we may paint
fire, but we cannot paint heat. Therefore God judgeth us more by our
desires and affections than by our words and actions.

Now you may know that our desires are holy and good, if so be that they
be heavenly; for then it is a sign that they come down from heaven, even
as a spring will arise and ascend as high as the spring-head whence it
comes. If our desires rise to heaven, as the church's here do, then it is a
sign they come down from heaven.

Our desires are as a stream, which I will shew you, by prosecuting that
metaphor and allusion in sundi-y particulars.

1. A good stream hath a good spring ; so must our desires. The spring
of the church's desires here is love : she loves Christ, and therefore desires
him to ' come quickly.'

2. A stream, you know, carries all before it ; so our desires are an holy
* That is, ' naughty,' = wicked. — G. t Cf. Kobinson'a Lexicon, sub voce. — G.

544 THE bride's longing.

stream issuing from a good spring and carrying all before them. They are
efficacious, not a mere velleity,* as they say, a bare wishing and woulding.

3. A stream, if it be stopj^sd, will swell till it break down all opposition
and carry all before it ; so let a good desire be stopped, and it will swell
more and more, and grow bigger and bigger, till it makes way for itself.

4. A stream is restless and incessant till it meet ivith the ocean and empty
itself into the sea ; so, true and holy desires be restless and always in motion.
They ai'e not like a standing pool that rests, but they are in motion still,
till they have emptied themselves into the boundless and bottomless ocean
of endless pleasure.

5. As true streams that arise from a fountain do wax bigger aud bigger
the nearer they come to the ocean, because other rivers join with them, and
so they take advantage and augmentation by other streams that run into
them, so, if our desires be true, they are groiviny desires ; they increase
bigger and bigger still till they come to heaven.

6. At length, we see the streams emjJty themselves into the sea. They are
swallowed up there, where they have a more constant being than in them-
selves, namely, of the ocean, the true element and proper place of all
waters ; and so our desires, if they be holy, as they are restless and grow-
ing, so at last they empty themselves into Christ, and join with God and
happiness for the time to come ; for there is greater happiness for the souls
of men, in God, in Christ, and in heaven, than there is in themselves, and
there they are swallowed up.

7. Lastly, We viay try our desires by this. Vapours in a low place do
shew that there is a spring there. You know that the springs are there
where there are most vapours constantly. So where there be breathings of
the soul upward, as there is here of the church, surely there is a spring of
love that yields these vapours, and whence these desires flow.

But I come more particularly unto this particular desire of the church,
* Come, Lord Jesus.' I shall make way by some propositions which I shall
premise, before I come to the main thing which I shall stand upon at this
time.

First, We must take it for granted ;

Obs. 1. That there unit be a second glorious coming of Christ, that will be
far more glorious than the former.

The best times and things are to come for Christians every way. Every
day they rise they are nearer to their happiness.

Again, We must know this ;

Obs. 2. That a Christian, if he hath true faith in the times to come, he will
have answerable desires, and correspondent prayers.

For, beloved, there is always an harmony between the heart and the
brain, between the understanding and the will and affections. What we
assent to as true, and consent to as good, that we shall both desire and
pray for. Therefore, if you know there will be a glorious coming of Christ,
and if you assent to it, that the best times are yet to come, surely there
will be this prayer too. There is alway a sweet agreement and harmony
between a sound convinced knowledge and gracious affections. Hence it
is, that in Scripture what we do not wish and aflfect,t we are said not to
know. We see not things in their proper light, when we know and affect
them not ; but we have received them only by tradition and from others.
But when we see proper things with a proper light, spiritual things with a
spiritual light, then there will be always prayers and desires accordingly.
* That is, ' wishing.' — G, t That is, ' choose,' ' love.' — G.

THE bride's longing. 545

As tlie cliurcLL here, after ' Amen, even so,' tliere is the desire. * Come,
Lord Jesus,' there is her prayer.

And therefore, we may know whether our knowledge be spiritual or not,
by this, if the heart be subdued to yield unto it. Otherwise the heart will
swell when it comes to petition, and to particular truths. What ! Shall
I yield to this ? No. I have heard of this by the hearing of the ear, but
I know not whether it be true or not ; I have heard much talk of the
Scriptures. But when the Scripture comes to cross a man in this or that
particular lust, then if his knowledge be not spiritual, his heart will rise and
swell against it, and begin to call into question and doubt ; yea, and to
think it folly and a base thing for a man to yield to it. I am sure of my
pleasures, I am sure of my profits, but I am not sure whether this be true
or no. And thus the heart of an atheist comes to stand out, because his
knowledge is not spiritual. But if it be, then it carries an assent to it with
it, and a desire drawn into a prayer.

Again, You must know this before we come unto the main point,

Obs. 3. That a gracious heait turneth promises into desires and prayers.

The promise was, * I come quickly.' Here faith clasps about the pro-
mise, as a vine about the elm, and saith, ' Come, Lord Jesus.' Faith puts
the promise into suit presently. Christ had no sooner said, * I come
quickly,' but the spirit of faith saith, ' Nay, come, Lord Jesus.' But then
we must be sure that we have a promise out of the word of God. Faith
hath no ' amen' for the word of a man, or for anything else but the word
of God ; and when it fastens upon that, as it doth here, you see it turns
it into a holy desire and prayer, ' Come, Lord Jesus.' Beloved, we believe
not the promise as we should do, else we would do so. We have rich,
' exceeding great and precious promises,' 2 Peter i. 4, but where is our
rich, exceeding great and precious faith, to lay hold upon them, and to turn
them presenUy into suits, desires, and prayers ? Thus if we would do, we
should bind God with his own word ; he cannot deny himself, or falsify his
truth.

Ohs. 4. You see again, that the more assured one is of anything, the mors
effectually it will make him to pray.

An atheistical heart would say thus : Such a thing will be ; Christ will
come whether I pray or no ; what need I pray then ? Nay, therefore pray,
because he will come. ' I come quickly ; ' therefore, * Even so come, Lord
Jesus.' Christ himself was fully assured that his Father would grant him all
that he prayed for : ' I know that thou hearest me always,' saith he, John
xi. 42 ; yet you see what an heavenly prayer he makes, John xvii. Nay,
God bids him do it : ' Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance,' Ps. ii. 8, &c. Christ himself must ask before God will give
him ' the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession.' So Ezek. xxxvi.,
where you have the covenant of grace itself, with many promises attending
it ; to all which it is added, ver. 37, ' Yet for all these things will I be
inquired of by the house of Israel, saith the Lord.' Though he had made
great promises to his church, yet he must be prayed to for the performance
of them. He will have things received as fruits of our prayer, as well as
of his promise and providence. We cannot be so thankful for things that
come only as fruits of his providence, as when we look upon them as fruits
of our prayers. David was a king of prayers ; but Saul came by providence
only, and by the people's importunity. Whether was the more blessed ?

Oh then, my brethren, though we be never so much assured of things to
come, yet let us join prayer thereto ; for the assurance of the end will stir

VOL. YI. M m

546 THE bride's longing.

us up to the careful use of the means. None are so careful of the latter
as they who are most assured of the former. Witness the church here.

The next thuig I shall premise, as making way for that, that I mean
more fully to speak of, is this :

Obs. 5. That God's promises have gradual performances.

They are made good by degrees. God goes by many steps to the per-
formance of his great promises ; as here, the promise of Christ's ' second
glorious coming ' hath many degrees to the accomplishment thereof. So God
promises ' a new heaven and a new earth,' Isa. Ixvi, 22. That was one
degree of the performance hereof, when the Jews came out of captivity. It
had a second degree of performance when Christ came in the flesh. Then
all things were new. There was a new priest, a new Sabbath, a new
nation. So when the Gentiles were called, and came in, it had a third
gradual performance. When the Jews shall be called, when there shall be
' a resurrection from the dead,' as it were, Kom. xi. 15, then all things
shall be new. That was a fourth. And the last and full performance shall
be, when all things shall be new indeed ; that is, when there shall be ' a
new heaven and a new earth.' So this promise here, ' Come, Lord Jesus,'
it hath a latitude and a breadth of performance ; ' Come, Lord,' into our
hearts first, and set up thy kingdom and sceptre there ; subdue all therein unto
thyself, throw down all lusts, thrust out Satan, take thine own interest in us.

And then ' come' into thy church, as you have it, Mark ix. 1. There
is a powerful coming of Christ in the gospel; therein ' the kingdom of God
comes with power.' Come thus in the ministry of thy word. When Christ
was bodily ascending up into heaven, he came spiritually in his ordinances.
And thus ' come ' thou by thy Spirit.

And then ' come ' to blast antichrist, and to consume * that man of sin,'
2 Thcs. ii. 3, and so make way for the other degree of thy coming,
' Come ' in the fulness of the Gentiles, ' come ' in the conversion of thy
people of the Jews, that their riches may be an increase of our riches, that
there may be golden times indeed, as surely then they will be.

And then, because there is a certain number of the elect of God, which
must be accomplished and fulfilled ; and Christ will delay his last coming
till that be done ; therefore, * come ' and accomplish the number of thine
elect, as you have it Rev. vi. 11, 'And white robes were given to every
one of them ; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a
little season, until their fellow- servants also and their brethren, that should
be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.' They must stay till the rest
come in. As they that have invited a company of strangers to a feast, do
stay till the last be come, so there will not be a glorious coming of Christ
until all the elect be gathered into one body. And then shall be the com-
ing of all comings, which is the glorious coming of Christ, to take us to
himself, and to make us sit with him, • to judge the world,' 1 Cor. vi. 2,
as so many kings and judges of the world, and to be with him for ever.
As the apostle saith, ' Then shall we be ever with the Lord,' 1 Thes.
iv. 17, 18. And that is a comfort indeed. As he adds there, ' Wherefore
comfort one another with these words.' And so you see the gradual per-
formance thereof.

Now I come unto the last, and that which I mean most to stand upon,
being a blessed truth, most suitable to this occasion.

Obs. 6. That as it is the duty, so it is the dis2)osition of a gracious heart,
to desire the glorious coming of Christ Jesus ; and, to desire all his other com-
ings in way and order to this, as they make way for his last coming

THE BRIDE S LONGING.

547

In the unfolding of this I shall shew you the grounds and reasons why
the church doth so, and then make some trials whether we do so or no,
and then give some few directions to help us therein.

Why doth the church desire so much this second and glorious coming of
Christ ?

Reason 1. Because the church is in want till that time, and the ground of
all desire is want. We want our bodies, we want many of our friends, &c.
But then there shall be a supply of all.

Reason 2. Because ' our life is hid with Christ in God,' and ' when
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in-
glory,' Col. iii. 3, 4. Our glorious head is there already. When he shaU'
be revealed, then our glory shall be revealed, for * he shall come to ba
glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all those that do believe.'

Reason 3. In rer/ard of Christ himself: Christ is in some sort imperfecfe
till the latter day, till his' second coming.' For the mystical body of Christ
is his fulness. Christ is our fulness, and we are his fulness. Now Christ's
fulness is made up, when all the members of his mystical body are gathered
and united together ; the head and the members make bnt one natm-al body^
So Christ and the church are but one mystical: 1 Cor. xii. 12, 'As the
body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one
body being many, are one body, so also is Christ.' Hence it is that the
saints are called ' the glory of Christ,' 2 Cor. viii. 23. Christ in this sense
is not fully glorious therefore till that time. The church desires therefore
that Christ may be glorious in himself, and glorious in them, that he may
come to be ' glorious in his saints,' 2 Thes. i. 10.

Reason 4. Because, ivhere the treasure is, there will the heart he also. Mat,
vi. 21. Now where is the church's treasure but in Christ ? Our spirits.
are supernatural, and carried to the best of spirits ; and who is the best of
spirits but Christ himself ?

Reason 5. Because the memhers are carried to union with the head>. The
happiness of the soul is in union with the fountain of happiness, and the
nearer the fountain of happiness the more happy. What is it that makes
the blessed body of Christ more happy than all the angels and men, but
because it is hypostatically united to the second person of the Trinity, and
so to the fountain of the Godhead ? The nearer to God the happier, the
fuller of grace and glory, because he is the God of all grace and glory.
Therefore the nearer to Christ the more happy. Now after the resurrection
we shall be nearer both in soul and body. We may see this by the con-
trary. What is it that makes hell so horrible ? Because there is an utter
and eternal separation from the chiefest and choicest good, God himself.
Here the wicked men of the world have the presence of God in the creatures.
They taste the sweetness of God's goodness in them. But in hell they
shall have none to all eternity. There shall be an utter separation between
Christ and them. But now the joining to God, the fountain of all good in
heaven, makes heaven to be heaven indeed. If Christ was not there,
heaven would be no heaven. Therefore Paul saith, ' I desire to be dis-
solved and to be with Christ,' Philip, i. 23 ; and so the church here, ' Come,
Lord Jesus.' Then we shall be near, not in soul only, but alsoin body
and soul ; and in both we shall be for ever joined to the fountain of all
good. It is that which the church desires here ; and in the Canticles, what
is it that the church prays for in the beginning ? ' Let him kiss me with
the kisses of his lips,' &c., Cant. i. 2. There she desires the first coming
of Christ. But you have it afterwards in the conclusion of the book : ' Make

548 THE bbide's longing.

haste, my beloved, and be thou like to the young hart or roe upon the
mountain of spices,' Cant, viii. 14. Such is the disposition of the church,
that before Christ was come, good people were known b}^ the desire of his
coming. And therefore it was the description of holy men, that ' they
waited for the consolation of Israel,' Luke ii. 25. Lord, come quickly,
come in the flesh ! But now the first coming is past, they desire as much
his ' second coming,' and therefore they are described in the epistle of St
Paul to be such as ' love and long for the appearing of Christ ; a crown of
righteousness is laid up for all those that love his appearance,' 2 Tim. iv. 8.
Therefore if we had the spirit of the church, we would echo to Christ when
he saith, ' I come quickly,' and say, ' Make haste, my beloved,' &c., as the
church saith in the latter end of the Canticles.

Reason 6. Beloved, do but compare the glory of that time with the glory
which we have here, and that will shew another reason. I will shew it by
way of comparison a little, why the church should be desirous of the ' second
coming' of Christ.

If the good things that we have by grace here are such * as eye hath
not seen, or ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man to con-
sider of,' 1 Cor. ii. 9 (for the place is meant of grace especially, that is the
natural and immediate meaning), how transcendently then unutterable and
unconceivable are those things that are reserved against that time ! If the
' first fruits' are so sweet, what is the full harvest ! Rom. viii. 23. If the
' earnest' be so comfortable, what is the whole bargain ! 2 Cor. v. 5 ; Eph.
i. 14. If this 'joy be unspeakable and full of glory,' 1 Peter i. 8, and
this ' peace pass all understanding,' Philip, iv. 7, what will the fulness of
joy, peace, and pleasures which are at God's right hand for evermore,' Ps.
xvi. 11, and which shall be then, do !

If the angels wonder at the wisdom of God, in the government of his
church here, in the midst of confusion, how shall they be put into a new
and greater wonderment, w^hen they shall see Christ glorious in his saints !'
2 Thes. i. 10.

If when Christ was born in his abasement, they sang ' Glory to God on
high, peace on earth, good will towards men,' Luke ii. 14, how joyful will
those blessed spirits be, when Christ and all his members shall be joined
in one body in heaven !

If Abraham rejoiced to foresee by the eye of faith the first coming of
Christ in the flesh, how should we joy by faith to see the second coming of
Christ ! If John Baptist leaped in the womb for joy at the presence of
Mary the mother of our Lord, how will our hearts dance when we shall
see the Lord himself in the great glory and majesty of heaven ! Luke
i. 44.

If Peter was so ravished with a little drop and glimpse of heaven, when
he saw the transfiguration of Christ in the mount, so that he even lost and
forgat himself, and ' wist not what he said,' Mat. xvii. 4, how shall we be
afiected, think you, when we shall see Christ, not in his transfiguration,
but in his glorification, for ever !

If old Simeon, when he saw Christ in his infancy, embraced him in his
arms and said, ' Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, accord-
ing to thy word : for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,' Luke ii. 29, how
shall we be transported with joy and admiration to see Christ, not in his
swaddling clothes, nor in his infancy, but in heaven all glorious !

If the sight of Christ in his ordinances, in his word and sacraments, doth
so affect a Christian's heart, as to transform him into the image of them.

THE bride's longing. 549

2 Cor. ill. 18, what will it do to see Christ ' face to face,' without these
glasses ! 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

If the promises do so quicken us, as you have it in the Psalms, ' Thy
word hath quickened me,' Ps. cxix. 25, et alibi, what will the full perform-
ance of them, do !

If the communion of saints here be so sweet, even an heaven upon earth,
1 John i. 3, what will it be when all the blessed souls that have been from
the beginning of the world unto the end shall be all together, and they
altogether freed from all coiTuptions and infirmities ! What a blessed sight
will that be !

If so be that things prepared by men be so glorious as the temple of
Solomon was, what is that glory which was prepared before the world was,
and is in preparing still for the church !

If rest from labour be so sweet, what is * the glorious liberty of the sons
of God !' Rom. viii. 21. A little liberty from corruption, a little freedom
and enlargement of spirit here, how sweet is that ! When we ai'e set at
liberty to serve God, when we have the liberty of the spirit to go boldly to
God and to the throne of grace, Heb. iv. 16, how pleasant is that! But
oh the liberty of glory ! that is true liberty indeed. Beloved, these things
deserve and desire admiration,-:- rather than expression. Therefore I leave
them to your wondering and admiring, rather than I will study long to
express them. ye blessed souls, stand still a little, and consider by the
eye of faith these glorious things and times to come. You see then by this,
the church hath great reason to say, ' Come, Lord Jesus.'

Reason 7. Besides, do but consider the estate of the church here in this
u-orld ; even at the best, ' while we are present in the body, we are absent
from the Lord,' 2 Cor. v. 6. But for the most part, the church is in this
world as Daniel in the lions' den, as sheep in the midst of ravening wolves,
as a ship in the midst of the waves, and as a lily among thorns. All the
birds of prey do seize on the poor turtle dove of Christ, and they bear a
special and implacable malice against God's church and children. Yea,
oftentimes, those that profess religion in the form of it do let out the
heart-blood of it indeed, and deny the power thereof. We see it hath been
so ever since Christ's coming, and it will be so to the end of the world.
Satan abuseth the great ordinances of God, and makes them serviceable to
his own ends ; so that there is nothing free from Satan's defilement, no,
not the best ordinances of God. We see how boisterously and roughly the
poor church of God is handled. Are there not oftentimes in the church within
itself prejudices, surmises, jealousies one against another, that the company
of one another is not so sweet and delightful ? And ' woe to the world be-
cause of offences,' Mat. xviii. 7. Are there not scandals and offences in the
church, that hinders the comfort of it, and many times do cause the falling
out of those that are otherwise truly good ? So that in regard of Christians
themselves, there is not such a sweet complacency and delight one in another
as there should be, and as there shall be then. Where there is a dif-
ferent sight and a different light, there will be different judgments and
affections. Now all Christians in this life have both a different light and
sight, one sees things clearer than another, and so their judgments differ
a little, and therefore their affections too : those promises of the lion and
the lamb dwelling together, Isa. xi. 6, shall not exactly be performed until
this his ' second coming ;' but there shall be something of the lion and of
the wolf in the best Christians. Bat then it shall be fully satisfied. Then
* That is, ' wonder.' — G.

550 THE bride's longing.

all wolfish and lionlsh dispositions shall he subdued ; then there shall be
no infirmity in others to displease us, nor any in us to give distaste to
them ; but then we shall have an eternal communion together. Therefore
is there not, in regard of ourselves, good reasons for Christians to say,
' Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus' ? Then, in regard of every one in
his own particular, doth not every one find that true in himself that Paul
saith of himself, that we carry about with us ' a body of sin and a body of
death' ? Our corruptions, that we carry about with us, are like a dead
body tied unto a living body. Now, what an odious and loathsome thing
is it for a man to carry about with him a dead body ! Thus we do, and
the more we grow in grace, the more noisome it will be to us ; for the
more we grow in grace, the more life we have, and therefore the more
antipathy against sin. The more we grow in grace, the more light we have
to discern the bad, and the more will our love to grace increase. Now
the more light, and life, and love, the more shall we be annoyed carrying
about with us this body of sin, and ' the thorn in the flesh,' 2 Cor. xii. 7.
Some corruptions are as grievous to us as a thorn that rends the flesh.
And this is the disposition of the best in this hfe. Therefore, in regard of
the church and the enemies of it, in regard of ourselves and every particu-
lar Christian, in regard of their conflicting and afllicted condition, have we
not cause to say, ' Amen ; come, Lord Jesus' ? Thus we see the grounds
which the church hath to say so.

Let us now come to the second point, to try whether we can indeed
express this desire that the Spirit of God makes. For it is only the Spirit
in the spouse that saith, ' Come, Lord Jesus.' Let us see whether the
Spirit says so in us.

We shall not say much. It may be known by that which hath been
said in the beginning, and it is evident also besides. Therefore, in a word
or two.

Trial 1. Let us try ourselves by this. What benefit have ive by the first
coming of Christ, by his death, and the shedding of his blood? Doth that
pardon our sins ? Are our consciences ' besprinkled by that from dead
works to serve the ever-living God ?' Heb. ix. 14. Are our hearts set at
liberty to go to the throne of grace ? Have we thus any benefit by his first
coming ? Then we cannot but with a long and longing expectation look
for his second.

But, on the conti'ary, he that hath no good by the first, cannot truly
desire nor comfortably expect the second coming of Christ : for why ? The
second coming is but to make good what is begun here. The first is to
redeem our souls, the second is to glorify our bodies. If our souls be not
redeemed, never look for the ' redemption of our bodies,' Rom. viii. 23.
The first and second coming of Christ are of so near connection, that often-
times they are comprised together, as the regeneration of our souls and
the regeneration of our bodies, the adoption of our souls and the adoption
of our bodies, the redemption of our souls and the redemption of our
bodies ; to shew that wheresoever there is the true redemption and adop-
tion of the soul, there the redemption and adoption of the body will follow,
and an expectation thereof also. Christ will be redemption to us when he
hath been redemption to our souls first, in the assurance of the pardon of
our sins. Look then to that first.

Trial 2. If we desire the second coming of Christ, u-e ivill prepare for it.
If a man says, he desires to go to some great person, and yet never thinks
of any preparation for it, it is but a pretended desire if he doth not put on

THE bride's longing. 551

his best clothes, and fit himself for it, as Joseph did for Pharaoh, Gen.
xli. 14. So if a man hope for this coming of Christ, he will ' purify him-
self for it, even as he is pure,' 1 John iii. 3. He will not appear in his
foul clothes, but will ' put off the old man, and put on the new,' Eph. iv. 22.
He will fit himself as the bride for the coming of the bridegroom. Beloved,
if the thoughts of Christ's second coming be not efficacious to work m the
soul a greal care to fit and prepare for it, it is but a false conceit and lying
fancy, it is no holy desire. .

Trial 3. Examine it by this, whether your hearts he the kingdom of Christ,
whether he rule in your' hearts here? Do we think to rule with him m
heaven, in his kingdom, if we will not yield up our hearts to be his kingdom
upon earth ? No ; he will come into our hearts before we shall come to him ;
he will come to rule in us here, before we shall ever think to come to rule
with him in heaven. Therefore all they that stand out against the ordi-
nances of God, and will live in sin against their knowledge and conscience,
do they spend any thoughts or wishes on Christ's second coming ? He
will come indeed, but it will be a ' day of darkness and gloominess' unto
them, Joel ii. 2. Such persons cannot say, ' Come, Lord^ Jesus, come
quickly,' but ' Mountains come, and rocks come, come quickly : fall upon
us, and hide us from the presence of him that sitteth upon the throne, and
from the wrath of the Lamb,' Kev. vi. IG. Nothing will be more terrible
to such than that day. Fire is the most comfortable thing, and the most
terrible ; and so God is most comfortable to his, and yet most ^terrible to
such that do not prepare for his coming. ' Who amongst us,' saith the
prophet, ' shall dwell with the devouring fire ? Who amongst us shall dwell
with everlasting burnings?' Isa. xxxiii. 14. Who shall appear before
Christ ? To them, then, that hve in their sins, in this glorious light of
the gospel, there is a most terrible threatening, even from the coming of
Christ. ' If any man love not the Lord Jesus,' when he is discovered
clearly in the gospel, ' let him be Anathema, Maran-atha,' 1 Cor. xvi. 22,
which is a more terrible curse than any is in the law. As the greatest
blessings are from the coming of Christ, so from the same is the more ter-
rible threatening. There is not a more terrible curse in all the Scriptures
again, as that is in the Corinthians. So that ' the Lord shall come m
flaming fire, rendering vengeance to all them that know him not, and that
obey not the gospel,' 2 Thes. i. 8. Therefore take heed of this.

Trial 4. Try it again by holy exercises. They that desire indeed the
coming of Christ, they exercise themselves much in holiness: they exercise
themselves in the beginning of heaven here upon earth, in reading and
hearing the word, in the communion of saints, in praying and acquainting
themselves with God, &c. In what else shall we be employed when we
come to heaven ? There shall be the perfection of these graces and exer-
cises begun here upon earth. Many a profane wretch's heart swells when
he comes to prayer or any divine exercise. He is proudly brought up,
and his heart is not subdued to holy exercises here. Heaven will not
brook* such, and such will not brook heaven. There is nothing but prais-
ing God continually. Now if you will not endure these holy exercises here,
what should you do in heaven ? Therefore let us not deceive our own
souls, I beseech you. If we say this truly, ' Come, Lord Jesus,' undoubt-
edly it will have an influence into our lives, it wiU stir up all graces m the
soul : as faith, to lay hold upon it ; hope, to expect it ; love, to embrace it ;
patience, to endure anything for it ; heavenly-mindedness, to fit and pre-
* That is, ' endure.' — G.

552 THE bride's longing.

pare for it ; faithfulness in our callings, that we may make up our accounts
before that time, &c. There is not a grace of the Spirit, but it is stirred
up and quickened thereby. Therefore be not deceived. It is impossible
that we should have dead, and dull, and cold hearts, and yet believe this,
that there is such a glorious time to come. Undoubtedly it will inspire
and cause strength and comfort in all our sufferings, and in all our doings,
if our hearts do think with the spirit and thought of faith of this glorious
appearing of Christ. Therefore we should shame ourselves. What ! Can
I hear of these things, and be no more affected with them than I am ?
Thus we should complain of the deadness and dulness of our hearts, and
labour to work our hearts to an admiration of the excellencies that shall be
revealed then.

But I go on, and come, in the last place, to some few directions how
we should come to frame ourselves to this, to be able to utter this desire
and prayer.

Direct. 1. Labour to he reconciled to God. Maintain and preserve thy
peace and reconciliation with God, and then all things will be reconciled
unto us, that are between us and the second coming of Christ. Nay, all
shall be ours : death ours, devil ours, to help us to heaven. When we
are at peace with God, all shall be at peace with us, John v. 23 ; Hos.
ii. 18. And then we may have comfortable thoughts of that day ; then we
can think of death, and not be troubled ; of hell and God's wrath, and not
be disquieted. Therefore, above all, let us get the assurance of the grand
point of justification, of being clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Let
us be sure to be found in that, and appear in it, to understand that point
well. St Paul was wonderful careful hereof. He desires to have it as a
seal of the righteousness of faith, and ' to be found in him, not having his
own righteousness,' &c., Phil. iii. 9, as if he were tender, to touch upon
Christ's glory. If we be clothed with the garments of Christ's righteous-
ness, we may go through the wrath of God ; for that alone is wrath-proof.
That will pacify God, and pacify the conscience too. It is a righteousness
of God's own providing and accepting. Be sure that you understand it
well ; that you appear not in your own, but in his, and then may you think
of that day with comfort.

Direct. 2. If we would think of the blessed times that are to come with
comfort, then let us labour to grow in the new creature, to be more and
more filled with the fulness of God, to strive to have more of Christ in us
still. The more we have of Christ in us, the more shall we desire his
coming to us. Let us desire and labour to have all the corners of the
heart filled up with the Spirit of Christ, our understandings with knowledge,
our aflections with love and delight, and our wills with obedience. The
Scripture calls it, ' being filled with all the fulness of God,' Eph. iii. 19.
Now the more we enter into the kingdom of heaven, by growth in grace
here, the fitter shall we be for it, and the more shall we desire it. The
more suitableness there is between us and heaven, and the glorious condi-
tion to come, the more shall we long after it, and rejoice in the thoughts
of it.

Direct. 3. Be sure to do what you do quicMn and tJiorour/Jdtj. Satan is
so wise that he knows his time is but short, and therefore lays about him
with great wrath and fury, Kev. xii. 12. Oh let us be so wise as to know
that our time is but short. God himself tells us that it is so. Our time
is a little spot of time cut out between two eternities, before and after,
1 Cor. vii. 29. Then let us do our work quickly. We may be suddenly

THE BRIDE S LOXGING.

553

surprised before we be aware ; and as the tree falleth, so it lies ; as a man
lives, so he dies ; as death leaves us, so judgment, and the second coming
of Christ, shall find us. We should therefore, as the apostle saith, ' work
out our own salvation with fear and trembling,' Phil, ii. 12. Many men
when they come to die are troubled about this ; Oh, I have not done so ;
I should have done this and that, and have not; but I have done amiss, I
have not] thoroughly repented ; something is not done that should have
been ; I have not made mine evidences sound, I have not ' made my call-
ing and election sure,' 2 Peter i. 10. Oh my conscience is troubled, and
my soul cannot find that peace in God, &c. Oh do you take warning by
them, and now work out your salvation with fear and trembling ; and that
upon this ground, because the time is short and uncertain. Beloved, it is
a great error in us. We think of reaping as soon as we begin to sow, nay,
we begin to sow then when we should reap. Then we begin to think^ of
God and goodness when we lie a-dying. That should be a time of reaping
the comfort of all oar former life, and to think of the time to come with
joy. Oh what a comfortable thing would it be if we can with St Paul look
backward and say, ' I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith,' &c., 2 Tim. iv. 7. He looks back with comfort,
and therefore he looks forward with comfort too ; ' From henceforth there
is laid up for me a ci-own of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day,' &c., verse 8. When a Christian man
hath done the will of God, and looks backward and saith, I had a race to
run, and I have run it ; I had a faith to keep, and I have kept it ; I had
a fight to fight, and I have fought it; and then looks forward, and sees a
crown of eternal glory before his eyes : what a comfort and ravishing joy
will this afl'ord ! Whether he looks backward or forward, all is glorious.
But if we be careless and negligent, and will not work out our salvation,
then we cannot with Hezekiah look back with comfort, and say to God,
* Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth and uprightness
of heart, and have done that which was riglit in thy sight,' Isa. xxxviii. 3.
Neither can we with Sfc Paul look forward with any comfort. Beloved,
heaven is a pure place, and requires a great deal of purity in those that
come thither ; and Christ is holy and glorious. Therefore we must set no
measure and pitch to any holiness in this life, but grow still more and more
heavenly till we come to heaven. Therefore the apostle sets it down by
way of wonderment in the last of St Peter : ' Seeing all these things shall
he dissolved,' saith he, 2 Peter iii. 11. What saith he to that ? He
cannot tell what to say. Therefore he says nothing in particular, but in
general : ' What manner of persons ought we to be in allholy conversation
and godliness ! ' Some men will set a measure and stint to themselves,
and if any go beyond their measure, then they are such and such, curious,
nice, and precise, &c.* Why ! What measure of holiness should be set
to them that look for the second coming of Christ ? ' What manner of
persons ought wo to be ! ' He cannot tell what to say in particular, and
therefore leaveth it to admiration. We must not then set up our stafi", and
put any measure to any perfection here in this world ; but still grow in
grace and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of
the Lord.

Direct. 4. Let tis take all advantarfes to help ns in this desire and prayer
for the second cominfi of Christ, from all the crosses of this life, and from all
the businesses of Satan. Satan was shut out of paradise, but he is still
* Cf. note c, Vol. II page 194.— G.

554

TUE BEIDE S LONGING.

creeping into the paradise of the church. But in heaven he shall never
come. He was once there, and was cast down from thence, never to come
there again. But in the church he is always stirring. He is never so
bound up but he hath some mischief to do. Now let the consideration of
Satan and his instruments, that are alwa3's some way or other molesting of
the church, and are as thorns in their sicles, stir us up to desire the second
coming of Christ. So from all particular losses and crosses let us help
ourselves. If we have lost a friend, let us fill our hearts with comfort from
the ' second coming' of Christ, and from the consideration of that, that then
the time will come when all friends shall meet together. Do we leave anyr
thing in this world behind us ? We shall meet with better there, better
friends, a better place, better employment ; all better. Therefore let us
take advantage from everything to help forward that desire. In a word, I
beseech you, because there be many things that might be spoken to this
purpose, let it be your main care to fit yourselves for that time. It is a
time of longing here, while we live. It is the time between the contract
and the marriage. Let us labour to be fitted and prepared for that time.

Obj. But you shall have many a good soul cry out, Oh, I am not so
desirous of the coming of Christ as I ought.

A71S. True. It may be so because of thy wants, because thou hast not
prepared thyself, because thou art not spiritual, because thou art not
mortified. This ariseth further, as from other causes, so from this. Thou
art ignorant of the covenant of grace, that God is thy Father, and that he
hath bound himself as a father to pardon the sins of his children. There-
fore, if thy sins be but infirmities, that thou strivest against, thou mayest
be comforted. Mark what the apostle saith, ' We ourselves, which have
the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves do groan within ourselves,
waiting for the adoption, even the redemption of our bodies,' Kom. viii. 23.
If we labour against our corruptions, it should be so far from hindering our
desire of Christ's coming, that we should desire it the rather, because we
labour under them ; for then we shall be fully rid of them. Labour to
understand the covenant of grace more fully. Christ is a mediator and
intercessor. For whom ? For perfect men ? No. But for them that
unwillingly run into debt with God every day. Therefore we say in the
Lord's prayer, ' Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,'
&c.. Mat. vi. 11, 12. The ignorance of evangelical points makes us so
cold, so dead and dull, as we are oftentimes.

Obj. But you will say, I desire to live still. Those that desire the
* second coming ' of Christ, desire that he would come and fetch them out
of the world when they have done their work. May not I do so ?

A72S. Yes you may, but it must be with a reservation that you may bring
to heaven as many as you can, that you may get further evidence of your
salvation ; and so in other respects you may desire to live, so it may be
that God may honour himself by our lives. But simply, and as the thing
is in itself, we ought to be of St Paul's mind, ' to desire to be dissolved,
and to be with Christ,' which is far better, Phihp. i. 23.

Therefore when the time of our dissolution comes, we are to be willing to
resign up our souls unto God, not only patiently, but cheerfully. For why ?
The day of death is a day of jubilee, a day of coronation, a day of marriage,
a day of harvest, a day of triumph. We are to be ashamed of the dispro-
portion of our desires to earthly things and to heavenly. Is the labourer
loath to think of a sabbath or a day of rest ? Is a soldier loath to think of a
day of victory and triumph ? Is a contracted person loath to think of the

THE bride's longing. 555

day of marriage ? or a king of the day of his coronation ? They are all
desirous of these things, and why should not we be of that time, when all
these things shall indeed and really be performed ? All those things are but
shadows, and scarce that, of things to come, and yet how earnestly desirous
are men of them ? Have not we then just cause to take occasion to shame
and blame ourselves, for the disproportion of our desix'es to earthly and
heavenly things ?

But now, when we have finished our work, when God hath been served
by us in our generations— as it was said of David, ' that he served God in
his own generation, by the will of God, and after that fell on sleep,' Acts
xiii. 36 — then God will take off our desire of living any longer, then he will
make us even willing to die. As St Paul, in the last epistle that ever he
made, when he had run his race and fought his fight, and finished his
course, then nothing but a crown. ' Henceforth, there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness,' &c., 2 Tim. iv. 8. And in the same chapter after-
ward : * The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and preserve me
unto his heavenly kingdom,' ver. 18. So saith Christ, ' I have glorified
thee on the earth : I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self,' John xvii. 4, 5.
So when the children of God have an item from the Spirit of God, that
they have done all that God would have them for to do, then they will be
most willing to go hence. In the mean time, they ' must run with patience
the race that is set before them,' Heb. xii. 1 ; they must fight the fight
that God hath pitched for them, and keep the faith ; they must be willing
to do all that God would have them, in an humble submission to his will.
But when they have done all, then their hearts will be enlarged to desire
the coming of Christ, that he would come and call them home.

So, then, this doubt is sufficiently answered. In a word, I will end with
this.

When you find your hearts dull and cold, and inactive to good, then
fetch fire from hence to inflame them : from the ' second coming' of Christ,
from the love of God in Christ, from the love of his appearance. Oh, rouse
up and quicken your hearts with such considerations. Do yon conflict with
any enemies, either without or within ? Kemember what the apostle saith :
* Fight the good fight of faith ; lay hold on eternal life,' 1 Tim. vi. 12.
What is the way to fight the good fight of faith ? Why, lay hold on eter-
nal life, and that will make a man fight indeed.

Are you in any disconsolate condition ? If you be, see what the apostle
Paul saith to the Thessalonians : ' Wherefore, comfort ye one another with
these words,' 1 Thess. iv. 18. With what words ? Why, ' We shall be
ever with the Lord.' Oh these words will comfort indeed. Consider,
when you have lost your friends, your estate, or anything, it shall be all
fully made up there ? Do you, as it were, make it up beforehand, with
comforts of a higher nature ? They be things that will comfort indeed.

And so, when you find yourselves dull in doing the work of the Lord,
think upon the ' second coming ' of Christ, and that he will not then come
empty-handed, but ' he will bring his reward with him,' Rev. xxii. 12.
Consider what St Paul said to Timothy : ' I charge thee, therefore, before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and dead at his
appearing, and his kingdom,' &c., 2 Tim. iv. 1. The holy apostle had no
greater a conjuration to move Timothy to be diligent, and to quicken him
in his ministry, than by the coming of our Lord Jesus. So let us stir up
ourselves, and comfort ourselves hereby.

556 THE bride's longing.

Beloved, the soul is never in sncli a tune, as when the thoughts of these
glorious times have raised the affections to the highest pitch and peg.
Then the soul is never uncomfortable ; and so long as it is so affected, it
cannot sin, for we lose our frame, we let down the soul in base desires,
we let loose our thoughts from closing with Christ, and with the time to
come, when we sin. When we let them loose, then they sink down to
earthly things ; and that is the cause of all sin and of all discomfort.

So long, then, as we keep our hearts in a blessed frame of faith, and in
a love of the appearing of Christ, they are impregnable. Satan cannot
come between us and our faith, but he labours to loosen our faith and love,
and to distract us with the businesses of the world, that we shall have very
seldom thoughts of these things. Alas, that we ' who are born again to an
inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for us,' 1 Pet. i. 4, should have so little and so light thoughts of
our inheritance !

If a man were to go a journey by sea a year hence, he would be thinking
every day upon his journey, what he should have to carry with him, and
what will do him good when he comes there. We have all of us a long
joui'ney to go, from earth to heaven ; and we should be thinking of it every
day in the year.

But v/e have a company of men in the world, all whose happiness is in
putting off all thoughts in that kind ; in deferring the day of their death,
and putting the evil day far away from them ; not thinking upon them ;
that so they may drown themselves in pleasure and voluptuousness. Ah,
what a pitiful case hath Satan and our own sinful dispositions brought ug
unto, that we should place our happiness, safety, and comfort in putting
off the thoughts of death, in going on presumptuously in sin, and never
thinking upon that great day ! Alas, they cannot think of it but as Felix
did, who, when he heard Paul dispute and reason of ' righteousness, and
temperance, and judgment to come, trembled,' Acts xxiv. 25.

Why, let Felix tremble, and let the world tremble, but let every Chris-
tian that hath made his peace with God, rejoice. Even as poor birds do
sing when the spring time is returned again — for it warms them, and puts
life and spirit into them, and they entertain the light and heat of the sun
with singing and melody — so let us, in our thoughts, entertain Christ's
coming with joy and comfort, having made our peace, substantially and
Bolidl}^, with God. Let us look up, and lift up our heads with joy, for our
redemption draweth nigh, Luke xxi. 28.

Noiv I come to the jmjiicular occasion.

It is well known that the particular occasion of this meeting is, to cele-
brate and solemnise the funeral of that worthy man Sir Thomas Crew, one
of the king's Serjeants, in regard of whom I made choice of this text. If I
wanted matter to speak of him, he had many natural excellent parts, which
did commend him. I might speak of the quickness of his wit, of the firm-
ness of his memory, of the readiness of his expressions, of the clearness
and solidity of his judgment, able to penetrate into the depth of things, &c.
And for his ability in his particular calling, I might say many things. He
was a man very eminent in his calling : he was one of the oracles of the
law in his time ; one that had gathered very long and large experience, and
wonderful great dexterity in that profession. And surely, beloved, these

THE BKIDE S LONGING. 557

tilings are not to be neglected by us, though to God-ward they are not
much regarded. For natural parts, the devil excels, and hath more than
any man ; but yet to men-ward, they are to be esteemed, for they vindicate
men from the reproach and obloquy of the world. They will say, Such a
man was a religious man, but he had no skill in his calling ; a good man,
but unlearned. Now then it takes away reproach and disgrace from reli-
gion, when it can be said. This was an excellent man in his profession, and
withal, a very excellent good Christian. It is the guise and fashion of
proud profaneness, to lay religion as low as they can. They will take away
or diminish all parts from religious persons as near as they can, that reli-
gion itself may seem vile and contemptible. For if religi'on once should
win credit, then their baseness would appear the more ; and that their pride
will not endure. Wherefore, if these things be to be regarded, in regard
of men, we ought to thank God for it, when grace is graced with exceflent
parts. Therefore, God sometimes vouchsafeth to men that are truly reli-
gious, excellency of parts. Otherwise, grace is lovely in itself; but as a
precious stone and pearl set in gold is more precious and glorious, so
religion, set in the stem of nature and excellent parts, hath more lustre and
beauty, and the larger improvement.

You have a company of profane wretches in the world, even in these
glorious times of the gospel, that do glory only in their excellent parts,
that will seek even to the devil himself, so they may out-brag others, and
gain to themselves a reputation of wit ; and some will vilely acfventure upon
sin against their conscience, thinking that they should lose all reputation
of wit and parts, if they should become religious once. But you see that
God oftentimes adorns religious men with excellent parts of nature. Reli-
gion^ indeed cuts off the froth, the exuberancy and redundancy of parts ;
but it iucreaseth the solidity of parts, and spiritualiseth them, and directs
them to their right end, to the glory of God and good of mankind. There-
fore, they may stand well enough together.

Now, in this worthy man there was a concentrating and joining together
of the parts of nature and the parts of industry, and likewise of the'^parts
of grace. And that which did steer his conversation, and rule all aright,
was indeed the true fear of God, which caused him to set the stamp of
religion on all his courses in his whole conversation.

For the Lord's day, it may a little be discerned by that. He had a
wonderful care to keep it holy. He was as eminent as any in his profes-
sion for that. He would not intermeddle with the businesses of his calling
on that day. He did not think it enough to hear the sermon and divine
service, and then to go to the works of his calling. And in this he is to be
commended. For whose good hath God appointed the Lord's day ? Is it
not for our own ? Should not we grow base and earthly-minded, if one day
in seven we should not be heavenly-minded, and think upon our everlasting
condition in another world ? Shall we think much then of that which God
appoints for us ?

^ But to return. Besides his care of the Lord's day, for he did not limit
his religion to a day, he was careful in his family of having morning and
evening prayers ; yea, and private also, twice in a day at the least. And this,
as it did bring strength to his soul, and put a beauty upon it, so it did also
sanctify his labours and prosper his businesses, and bring them to a good
issue. He lost nothing by it. And seeing it is almost impossible in these
profane times but that such courses as these are should meet with envy and
Bcorn from some, therefore he had learned with Moses * to bear the reproach

558 THE bride's longing.

of Christ,' Heb. xi. 26. He did account notting more glorious than the
profession of religion. And truly religion is a glorious thing : it puts a
glory and beauty upon the soul.

But there are many men in these days that will not own Christ in his
cause. How will such look him in the face another day, when he hath
said, * Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adul-
terous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed,
when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with his holy angels,' Mark
viii. 38.

But this worthy man, I say, what he judiciously undertook he constantly
went through withal. He would not be scorned or turned out of his course
by any man. He was a child of wisdom, able to justify what he did against
the spirit of gross and proud profaneness, and against an empty, formal,
dead, cold profession. He had not only the word of God to back him, but
his own excellencies, and the sweetness that he felt and found in his Chris-
tian course, to defend him. And this should all we labour for.

He was, moreover, a man exceedingly conscionable.* He had a very
tender conscience, being willing in all doubtful things to be directed and
resolved, which was an excellent thing. He knew, and so should all you,
that the time would come ere long that a man would give a great deal to
have a good conscience, and this was in him.

For his conversation in his family, he was very mild and gentle at all
times ; not as some, who being sweetened with a fee, are wonderful mild
and calm to their clients, but are lions in their own houses. His carriage
was not such.

For his conversation with other kind of men, it was sweet and loving,
and very useful. He was full of goodness, and offices of love. He did not
bear himself big upon his offices or place ; but was, as David saith of him-
self, * as a weaned child,' Ps. cxsxi. 2. Though his parts did raise him
up, and advance him above the ordinary sort of men, yet his grace levelled
him, that he made himself equal to the lower sort, and yet in such sort
that he had wisdom to understand and know himself in his place, and so
grace will teach a man to do.

He was a marvellous great encourager of honest, laborious, religious
ministers, for their Master's sake, and for their work's sake, and he lost
nothing by it. He had a prophet's reward, the prayers of all good men
that were acquainted with him. And I hope that that commendation will
not die with him, but that it will live in those that he lives in.f

For his disposition toward the poor, he was very merciful and compas-
sionate. He was the poor man's lawyer; insomuch that the last cause that
ever he pleaded was sub forma j^dtij^eris, for a poor man, and a minister ;
as it was publicly shewn to the greatest and most judicious magistrates in
the kingdom. * He was a foot to the lame, and eyes to the blind,' as Job
saith he was. Job xxix. 15, and * he made the widows to rejoice.' He
was a helpful and fruitful man, ' a tree of righteousness,' full of good fruit.
He made the times and places better where he lived. He was a great
lover of his countiy, even in some degree to the prejudice of himself.

It pleased Eng James, of famous memory, to choose him with some
other commissioners, to go into Ireland about public employment, which
he performed with such care and conscience, that when he returned home
again he was made the king's serjeant, and after that speaker in parlia-
ment, and the mouth of the Commons.

* That is, 'conscientious.' — G. f Qu. 'leaves'? — Ed.

THE bride's longing. 559

He was forty years a practitioner in his calling ; in which time God
blessed him with a great increase of his estate. God sometimes doth
delight to make good his temporal promises to a religious, industrious, and
faithful man, and that in the eyes of the world. Sometimes God carries
things in a cloud and in a mystery. We cannot see how such and such
men should go back in the world. This will appear to us another day, in
the day of revelation. But because God would encourage religion, faith-
fulness, and industry, he makes good his temporal promises to such faithful
men as he was. Such was his faithfulness, such was his dexterity and
quickness in dispatching men's causes and business, that men were willing
to put their causes and estates into his hands. Therefore it is no wonder,
if in so long a time as forty years' practice, God blessed him with so great
an estate.

Obj. But some may object his going to London of late times, when his
infirmities grew upon him.

Ans. But this much I know, that the exigency and urgency of other
men's occasions did importune, and in part draw him to it. And then
again his stajang at home was very tedious to him. It is death to an
industrious man, that hath been in employment, to be idle, as it is death
to an idle man to be employed. He was a man of an active spirit, and
one that was not hindered by his journeys. Neither would it have holpen
or eased him to have stayed at home. Therefore you must judge charitably
of that.

But I come in a word to the time of his sickness, and so to the hour of
his death.

For these later years he had two several severe churlish monitors that
did put him in mind of his end, namely, the stone and the strangury. In
these sore diseases he carried himself with wonderful great patience. None
did ever hear any words fall from him that witnessed any impatience.

Toward his end, he considered that he was now for another and a better
place. Therefore, when he was invited to dinner in the house of which he
was, in Gray's Inn, saith he, ' I must dine in another place.'

When his sickness did seize upon him more sharply, though the pain
thereof took away a great part of the powers of his soul, yet he did mani-
fest a great deal of strength of faith by divers words that fell from him :
' As the hart brays after the rivers of water, so panteth my soul after thee,
God,' Ps. xlii. 1. And as the church doth here, * Come, Lord Jesus,
come quickly :' and, ' Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
according to thy word.' He was displeased with them about him, that out
of their love to him did recall him by cordials out of a swoon, and so pro-
tracted his life longer than he would have had it : ' You keep me too long
from Christ,' saith he, ' God is merciful to me, and you are not,' with
many the like. And when they heaved up his body, his spirit was so
strong in him as if he desired to meet Christ before his time.

And thus, at length, this blessed man meekly yielded up his blessed soul
into the hands of his blessed Saviour, that had so dearly bought it, sancti-
fied it, and sealed it by his holy and blessed Spirit.

Beloved, I think there were but few men of later times, of whom we had
more, and a more general loss, than of this worthy man. His servants
lost a kind and loving master ; his children lost a most tender and careful
father ; his friends, a true, cordial, and hearty friend ; the professors of the
law, a special ornament of it ; the ministers especially, a sweet encourager ;
the poor clients, a loving patron ; the richer sort, a grave, wise, and judi-

560 ' THE bride's longing.

cious counsellor; religion and justice, a great supporter; the country
where he lived, a faithful magistrate. So that here is the loss of many.

But what hath he lost ? He hath attained to that which he desired so
earnestly, he hath joined himself to Christ and left behind him a monument
of mortality, the sad remembrance and remainder of him, his dead body. He
hath made an happy change, of earth for heaven ; of the company of men
for the company of perfect souls and angels in heaven ; of troublesome
employments here for glorious employments for ever. So that he is no
loser.

He hath left behind him likewise another sweet memorial and remem-
brance of him, as sweet as the ointment of the apothecary, unto the church
and people of God.

He lived, to end all, in the best times that have been in the church since
the apostles' times all his days. He was born under the gospel and lived
under the gospel. He began to favour the best things, even from his
youth. And God lengthened his daj'S very long for the good of us.
Therefore God miraculously, almost, preserved his weak worn body. It
was much that such a spirit should endure in such a body so long under
such diseases. But, at length, being full of days, and full of honour with
all good people, God having blessed him in his children (for his children's
children inherit his blessing), in the comfort and assurance of an happy
change, he yielded up his blessed soul, and triumphant spirit, into the
hands of God, whom he had loved ; whose cause he had owned here in the
world, in the midst of this sinful generation, and whom he professed, even
unto death ; whose coming he desired so earnestly ; where, and with
whom, we now leave him.

And for you, beloved, that fully know, as the apostle Paul saith, * his
purpose, his manner of life, his faith, his long-suffering, his charity,
patience,' &c., 2 Tim. iii. 10, I beseech you, let not his memory die with
him ; but let those virtues that were in him live in you, so long as you
live. ' If there be anything praisew^orthy, or of good report' (as indeed
there was much in him), * think on these things,' Phil, iv. 8. If there
were any infirmities in him (as, I think, there were as few in him as in
any man), love hath a mantle to cover them. He was a gracious man
every way ; one that adorned the doctrine and gospel of Christ in every-
thing. Therefore, I beseech you, as the apostle saith, ' be followers of
him, as he was of Christ.' We must one day give an account to God, not
only for what sermons' we have heard, but for the examples of those
amongst whom we have lived ; how we have profited by the lights that God
hath set before us in the world, whether we have imitated their examples
or no. We must give an account for all the good we might have received,
not only by the means of salvation, but also by the precedents of worthy
persons set before us.

I beseech you, in the bowels of the Lord Jesus, ' think on these things,*
and ' the peace of God be with you ! '

END OF VOL. VI.

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